Ratchet and Clank: An Epic Return
by No-Name Narrator
Summary: Another adventure, another rendezvous with Dr. Nefarious. It all seems typical until a few unlikely twists shake up the galaxy.
1. Rather Strange

Greetings. I am the No-Name Narrator. I would have chosen Nameless Narrator, but it was unavailable. Hopefully the name isn't too bad.

A few points before we begin (*snore*):

1\. This is my first fanfiction. Take from that what you will.

2\. I do not own Ratchet and Clank and will not make any money off of this.

3\. This story is rated T. Expect the following:

Violence, some strong. I will avoid blood/gore.

Mild language. I'll try to keep this as close to zero as possible.

Some Crude Humor. This is a Ratchet and Clank fanfic, after all.

 _Viewer Discretion is Advised._

* * *

 **Rather Strange**

 **In space...  
**

Ratchet and Clank were sent to the IRIS supercomputer on the order of… a small error. A very small error. So small they didn't even understand it. The error was never communicated well with them before they started traveling.

They were cruising in their marginally inferior Starship Aphelion. Sure, it had a decent engine. A decent weapon system. A unique personality. But the shields were terrible. They could be depleted in less that ten skillfully placed shots, and could not recharge. The only thing that really has kept them alive through these space trips was their 'mad skills' they had since their second adventure. _Maybe_ their first, but that's debatable.

"Ratchet, the only thing that I made sense of in that conversation was 'communication error'. That description is very broad. Do you have any idea what kind of communication error that was?" Clank said, still a bit puzzled.

"Probably sentence fluency." Ratchet responded, out of character, and trying an attempt at humor. He, of course, had no better idea what those robots were saying. It was all gibberish or completely random.

"I meant on IRIS" Clank retorted.

"I-"

"Incoming call from Captain Quark." Aphelion interrupted.

Ratchet hesitantly pressed the light green button on the steering mechanism, accepting the call.

"Heeeey. How is everyone's favorite killer kitty today?" Captain Quark said in both a clever and goofy manner. Ratchet and Clank remained silent for the moment, simply looking at each other.

"Quark, will you stop calling me those kinds of names? I told you before, only call me Ratchet, sir, or handsome."

"And charming, right?"

"And that."

"And Mister Fantastic…"

"Quark…" Quark was starting to push his limits, as his voice turned to slight annoyance.

"And Lllllady Magnet!" Quark pushed on, returning to his clever and goofy voice. He got this from the _Hottest Topics in Polaris_ magazine, naming Ratchet number three in the most charming would-be husbands.

"Quark!" Ratchet yelled.

"Sorry Ratchet. I just haven't heard your voice in so long. It's just _so_ lonely around here."

"Quark, it's been a day and a half." Ratchet replied. "Why are you even calling me?"

"Big news, Ratchet." Quark's positivity spiked.

"What now?" Ratchet was, as always, not looking forward to the "big news", as described by Captain Quark.

"I finally beat Helga in a boxing match!" Quark exclaimed, actually thinking he did something impressive.

"…Finally?" Ratchet questioned after a brief pause. He thought that Quark would have already beaten her at least a hundred times by now.

"Yep. And now that my two stallions are in better than perfect shape, I shall slay every enemy that stands in my way, alone, without the help of two _measly_ sidekicks. I will regain my spot as hero of the century!"

"Good luck with that Quark." Ratchet was not offended. He couldn't have taken him seriously the first time they met.

"Approaching Kreeli Comet." stated Aphelion.

"Alright Quark, switching to personal communications."

"Quark on standby."

* * *

 **A couple minutes (and a few button presses) later...**

"Quark, are you on?"

"Whew. It's good to hear your voice again Ratchet. I was starting to get worried there for a second."

"Worried about what?" Ratchet skepticized as he started making way toward the many monitors up front. The path was cleared out since Tachyon's and the pirates' defeat. There were no more of those pesky ships hoarding the precious machinery.

"You know, Cragmite abductions, black holes consuming planets..."

"…And apparently giving me nightmares." Ratchet concluded. He wasn't actually afraid; he just wanted to stop him from going any further.

Ratchet and Clank were out of the cold, crusty climate and in IRIS. An automatic door was placed just before one would get to the screens. It was about time. None of this cold would have been any good for the electronics. They would have parked closer, but non-cargo carrying transportation devices are banned from getting closer than 250 yards from any side (even an underground side) of the computer.

"Say, what are you two doing on this…place?"

"We're trying to find a bug."

"Ratchet?" Clank says after a moment, tapping Ratchet on the shoulder lightly.

"Yes Clank?"

"Do you remember what I told you about using that kind of language around Quark?"

Ratchet froze, realizing he made a big mistake. A really big mistake.

Rule number one: Always speak literally to Quark.

"Yeah, I remember." Ratchet said in a faint voice, knowing the calamities he caused before by using alternative language.

"Ratchet, I have the perfect solution to all your bug problems!" Quark announced with great enthusiasm. "I just have to find it…around here…somewhere…I'll be right back." Quark stated as he went off screen.

"Not what I meant..." Ratchet said, but it was too late.

Ratchet looked around. There was himself, Clank, the supercomputer, and no one else.

"I thought there were supposed to be maintenance bots here."

Ratchet intended a response from Clank, but the computer interrupted instead.

"Hello Ratchet. Maintenance bots have left thirty minutes ago." The voice was the usual. Highly digitized, very soft, and, at times, barely comprehensible.

"So they bailed, then. Typical." Ratchet was always unimpressed with helper robots (except Clank of course). However, Grummel-Net robots were downright awful. Those inconveniences were nowhere to be seen when needed.

Ratchet returned his thoughts to the problem at hand. "So, what's this error we have here?"

"There is one minor error. Error, unknown connection to IRIS."

Ratchet thought for a moment.

"I can bring up a list of current connections." IRIS informed.

"Sure."

A list of three connections appeared on the main screen. Only two pieces of information were shown; the type of connection and the planet the connection is from. Two of the connections were known, one from Igliak, one from Terachnos. The last connection had an unknown type and an unknown location.

"Clank, why do I get the feeling that this error has nothing to do with any hardware?"

Ratchet was much more of a hardware than software geek. If this was indeed a software issue, Ratchet would not be of much help.

"It appears a possibility. There is a 'learn connection' feature available. Perhaps we should use that."

"That might be a help. IRIS, learn the unknown connection."

"Learning initiated. Gathering information…Failed."

"Why would it fail so quickly?" Ratchet thinks for a moment. "Disconnect and reconnect."

"Disconnecting…Complete. Finding connection…Init-Connection established."

Ratchet, with a strange look on his face, said: "There should be more to the process than that."

"It skipped the security protocol." Clank remarked.

"How do you know that?"

"I am using near-field communication to scan the computer. It was starting a security check when it abruptly went to accepting the signal."

Ratchet turns his attention to IRIS once again. "IRIS, use the unknown connection to update security information."

"Updating security information. This may take fifteen minutes or more, depending on the source."

"Clank, can you scan the last time the inside was checked?"

"The motion sensors indicate two years ago."

"Two years?" Ratchet responded with a slightly light voice. His subtle disgust for the maintenance bots kicked in again. He can't complain too much, though. He's done that enough. Making his voice sterner, Ratchet spoke up.

"IRIS, permission to access the inside."

"Access granted."

* * *

They were both inside when Clank heard a voice saying, off in the distance, "Ah-ha! Found it!" Clank realized this was from the communication unit. He handed the device to Ratchet.

"Captain Quark has returned."

"Oh, _great_." Ratchet took the device.

"Whew. Finally found it. I have no idea how it ended up with the dessert toppings."

"Quark, what I meant by the bug is-"

" _Now_ I know why the pie tasted strange. And why my tongue is numb." Quark interrupted.

"Quark, would you listen to me?"

"Ratchet, I introduce to you, the Bug Annihilator 10000! This baby is the most deadly insect killer ever made! It even says it on the can!"

Ratchet sighs. "And how do you know it works?"

"It's got the official seal of approval from the one and only." Quark holds up the can, showing a small picture of Quark with the phrase "It's Quarktastic!" near the bottom of the container.

"Riiiight." Ratchet remembers some of his _other_ "Quarktastic" products.

"Still skeptical? Allow me to show you a demonstration" Quark said with confidence. It was perfect timing. A small fly landed on a table a short distance from him.

"Quark, I don't have time for a demonstration."

Quark proceeds to ignore Ratchet, while Ratchet starts focusing on the inside of IRIS.

They were located in perhaps the most fantastic spot in the techno-verse. Dozens of killer processors on one side, memory on another, and so much storage that Ratchet couldn't name the suffix of how much it held (it was 5.5... something).

"Now how does this thing work?" Quark says as he finds the directions on the side of the can.

"Clank, check over there for problems." Ratchet commanded, pointing to the side opposite of where he was, toward the memory.

"Hmmmm. Let's see. Step one, remove cap from can." Quark opens the cap, emitting a pop. That pop startles the fly and sends it moving around randomly.

"Shoo, fly" Quark says as he swings his massive arms, trying to punish the insect. After a few seconds, he gives up, allowing the fly to land on his nose.

"Stay still fly." Quark looks at the directions again. "Step two, point directly at the source."

Hearing this, Ratchet turns his head toward the communication unit. Captain Quark was pointing the bug spray at his face! Ratchet's eyes widened.

"Quark! Don't spray that stuff on your face!"

"Step three, hold down the sprayer for a half second on small insects, one and a half seconds for larger insects." Quark presses down on the sprayer.

"ssssssssssssss" The chemicals came out rather weakly, a combination between a mist and a stream. The spray hit the fly, making it curl up instantly and fall off of Quark's face.

"Got em. Told ya it would work."

Ratchet stood there, stunned. He always thought Quark had the slightest form of intelligence, but every meeting brought that thought farther from existence.

"Why are you staring at me?"

There was a few seconds of motionless calm.

"My eyes!" Quark starts his own panic. Quark, not (ever) used to panic, covers his eyes with his hands and runs in small circles.

Hearing Quark's distress across the room, Clank questioned, "Ratchet, what is going on?"

"Quark sprayed bug spray in his face."

Clank face-palmed. He walked back over to Ratchet, seeing if he could be of any assistance. Of course, speaking intelligence to an unintelligent being is quite a difficult task.

"Ratchet! I can't breathe! I can't breathe!" Quark yelled, hyperventilating.

"Quark, try flushing your face with water." Ratchet's idea simply came from the fact that this is labeled on most pest control cans. Quark, desperate for a solution, leaves the view of the screen briefly.

Clank was now next to his partner, both near the back of the room, away from where the monitors were mounted. He was going to address the situation with Quark, until he saw a broken wire near the ceiling.

"Ratchet, there is a broken wire over here."

Ratchet oriented himself to where Clank is pointing.

"Good catch." Ratchet was actually not paying much attention to his surroundings, as he was occupied by a "hero" in distress. Hearing a troubling amount of coughing, he turned back to see the captain drenched in water.

"Ratchet!" Quark was in quite a serious coughing fit. "That didn't help my breathing!"

"No Quark. I meant... ugh." Quark had no hope of getting anything right. Ratchet had no hope of being a real help to him.

"Clank, I give up. You're in charge."Ratchet gave the device to the unsuspecting robot.

"No. _You're_ the one who started it." Clank pushed the communication unit away. He was merely going to help, not take over.

Captain Quark, in a frenzy, to find a cure, left the view of Ratchet. The latter felt a wave of relief travel through him. He didn't have to deal with that numbskull for now. He could actually get something done.

The Lombax was staring at the severed part of the circuit. Nothing special. Just a complete tear. What caused it? Not a great chance that would be known.

"Hey Clank, could you give me a lift?"

Being an experienced backpack, Clank jumped onto Ratchet's back perfectly. He adjusted a little; he had not used his thrusters for a while. The small robot engaged his thrusters and…

"Wwoooooaaaaahhhhh!"

They veered sharply to the left, charging straight above the walkway the two of them just had strolled. As fast as the duo went left, they went down. Clank cut the power of his feet.

"Oof" Ratchet exclaimed after landing quite hard on the not-unlike-concrete bottom.

"Are you alright Ratchet?"

"I'm fine." Ratchet responded, wiping the nonexistent dirt off of his left side. "What did you do to your thrusters?"

"Nothing." Clank sat up, checking his right foot, while Ratchet headed toward the split wire. There was another, almost effortless, way to get up there.

Ratchet jumped on one of the power supplies, rectangular in shape, and larger than him, then towards the pull-up bar sized pipe, hanging from it. The break on the wire was almost perfectly positioned; Ratchet only had to extend his reach slightly. Reaching for his pouch on his side, he pulled out a micro melter (somewhat similar to a soldering iron) and a micro softener (a weaker version of the micro melter for plastic). It was all delicate handwork from there.

After Clank finished checking his foot, he walked directly behind, and below Ratchet, taking note of the one-handed repair.

"Interesting. You're surprisingly able with one hand."

"Haven't noticed?" Ratchet had done repairs single-handedly before, just not often.

After completing the repair, Ratchet dropped down and took a couple of steps back. He stared at his accomplishment for a few moments.

"Hmmm, nothing." IRIS was designed to acknowledge any fixes to its structure, but it seemed there was no fix to detect.

"Perhaps it wasn't a critical break." Clank said with a slightly disappointed tone.

"The only thing I can think of now is resetting the communication devices. If that doesn't work, we'll just get a specialized person to investigate."

They navigated towards the wireless control room, entering a completely different section of the computer. It got quieter, darker, and cooler. Not an ounce of excitement. Of course, this was the perfect time for Captain Quark to re-enter the scene.

"Ratchet." Ratchet jumped the slightest bit, not expecting Quark to return quite this soon.

"I don't like it. It's too dark, too quiet."

"Kind of what happens when your in an empty area with no people around."

"It's… just.. that..."

"Afraid of the dark?"

"No! Not at all!"

"Whoa! What's that?" Ratchet suddenly moved the communication unit so Quark could view Clank's face. Unfortunately, the area they were in was dim enough where the only object visible was Clank's moderately glowing eyes.

"Ahhhhh!" Quark screamed. "Killer robot! Killer Robot! Ratchet! Run!"

"Quark, it's just me." Clank stated, looking slightly annoyed (at Ratchet of course).

"Oh, whew. I just thought you were a...Hey! That wasn't very nice!"

Ratchet could be heard chuckling the whole time. Clank gave him a stern nudge on his shoulder.

"Hey, it was a joke."

"Quark!" Helga could be heard yelling at Captain Quark. "Your fifteen minutes late! Get off your lazy butt and do the back breaker workout! Don't make me use the Walloper!"

"Sorry guys, have to go. This is going to be torture." Quark shuddered as he made his goodbye.

Perfect timing. They arrived at the communication control room. It was a small room; only a hundred Lombaxes could pack themselves inside, without standing on each other, if it were empty. Ratchet searched briefly over all the small buttons on lengthy columns and blinking lights covering all four walls, and the desk on the door side.

"Clank, which button turns the communications off?"

"Hold on..." Clank was using the near-field communication again. Apparently, this _near-field_ includes all of IRIS.

"There should be a large lever switch in here."

"I was expecting a big shiny red button."

Ratchet walked to what was the only lever in the room. Noticing the notification buttons, he pressed the button marked 'Restarting Communications'.

"Restarting communications. Expected downtime two minutes." IRIS informed.

Ratchet pulled the lever, shutting off communications for no more than a few seconds, before pushing it back. After ten seconds of start-up, the typical 'communication restored' statement was announced. They waited a minute afterward.

"Clank, check too see if..."

"Error, unknown connection to IRIS. Slight security risk."

"...Never mind."

"Error, power intake to backup battery Z unusable. Battery no longer charging. All other power systems functional."

"Look at what you did, Ratchet." Clank joked lightly.

Ratchet was in a state of confusion. He quick-checked the control panel to make sure he didn't do anything strange. Surely enough, nothing he did had anything to do with batteries.

"How did _that_ happen?" Ratchet was mildly shocked. This was either a perfectly timed error, or a _very_ serious problem with the computer. No matter what, the first action was to check out the battery.

They left the control room, walking again in the long, dimly lit hallway. After only traveling a small distance, there was a whisper that emitted somewhat behind and to the right of them. Ratchet just continued on while Clank wasn't paying attention.

"Ratchet! Don't you dare walk away from me!" a familiar voice scolded.

Ratchet instantly turned around. That voice could only be Talwyn's. Her semi-transparent hologram was still very near the Lombax, even though Ratchet "walked away" from her.

"Whoa! Sorry Talwyn!" Ratchet exclaimed, also surprised to see her at this time.

"Wait a second. Why didn't it announce your name?" Ratchet said to Talwyn, questioning the holo-com unit.

"You turned the notification off." Clank replied.

"Ratchet, why are you at Kreeli Comet?" Talwyn said this plainly, but inside she had a little worry. Ratchet was supposed to be on vacation, and to be at IRIS at this time caused a bit anxiety.

"Just fixing a minor problem."

"How minor?" She knows Ratchet tends to understate problems like these quite a bit.

"No power to a battery."

There was nothing for about three seconds.

"Still on your vacation?" Ratchet spoke up. Coincidentally, they both planned the same time for a vacation (though they didn't plan together).

"No, had to meet with officials. Someone caught a thug killing Zoni. We have him in captivity and we're trying to get more information."

Clank became more infuriated than Ratchet. Talwyn could clearly see the expression in his eyes.

"How many have been killed?" Clank said with a vexed tone.

"Don't know, but a witness saw him kill two. Perhaps I should have said that he was Thugs4Less."

"Are there any connections to other Zoni killings?" Ratchet wanted to get all of the information, even though he knew he wasn't going to get an answer.

"We still need more information." Talwyn repeated. "I'll get back to you when we get some."

* * *

A short while later, they were in the power/energy storage section of the computer. It was still dark, still relatively empty, but quite a bit warmer. All they could see was different kinds of large batteries. There were cell batteries, capacitor batteries, and a great amount of other obsolete technology.

The battery that they wanted to see was under a big, metal lid in the floor. All four of the bolts securing the lid were just a little bit small, but could still be turned by Ratchet's wrench. After taking out the seventy pound circular blockade and setting it aside, Ratchet climbed down the mounted ladder seated vertically, away from the battery. It had some wear from sitting there for many years, but was still more than sturdy. This lead into a short, narrow hallway. On the other side: the glowing battery. Clank helicoptered down and dropped the final two feet.

Ratchet, with Clank now beside him, walked closer to perhaps the most hypnotizing piece of the computer (other than those awesome sister-boards). Clank noticed something, and it wasn't good.

"Ratchet, that battery stores Zoni energy."

Ratchet paused briefly.

"How many innocent Zoni did they have to trap to get this thing working?" Ratchet could only remember trapping forty Zoni. There had to be thousands in there.

"No Ratchet, some component of the computer picks up some of their secondary energy to store."

"Secondary?" Ratchet was not the best at recognizing the properties of Zoni.

"It is a basic energy that radiates away from them. The energy is used for new appliances. All you need is enough Zoni to exist."

"Wish I knew that." Imagine what Ratchet could have done and made knowing that.

The "room" (if you could call it that) that the battery was in was tiny. There was only enough space around the cylindrical power source for Ratchet to fit rather uncomfortably inside.

"Who ever made this place should be fired." Ratchet stated, not liking the construction at all.

Clank stood there looking around, and taking into consideration what Ratchet had said.

"I think this place was optimized for Zoni."

Ratchet continued to slowly make his way to some papers he had his eye on.

"Well, at least they were considerate enough to leave a manual."

He peered through the limited manual. In it there was simply product specifications, and a picture depicting the parts. Ratchet stared at the first page until…

 _CLINK!_

His head shot up, eyes trying to find what caused the sound.

"Sorry Ratchet, didn't see the metal beam up here."

"What are you doing up there?"

"Checking the power intake."

After putting his robotic hands on one of the thick wires, he confirmed what IRIS had erred about. There was only a trace of energy going into the battery. Using his 'special robotic senses', he also concluded the wire was not damaged in any way.

He knew this could only mean one thing. There is no energy available from the outside. And there were two possibilities for that:

One, most or all of the Zoni traveled very far away (the radiated energy concentration decreases with distance).

Two, almost all of them died.

The first one is disturbing. The second one is scary.

Scary, because the Great Clock uses the same energy. You simply can't operate the clock without needing some. Once Clank realized this, he _had_ to call Sigmund. He still had the internal ability to call the inside of the clock.

"Sigmund, are you there?" Clank said, hoping he could get an answer quickly.

It only took fifteen seconds for him to show up.

"Clank! I thought you were never going to call again!"

"Sorry about the wait. How is everything in the clock?"

"Everything is up to standards."

"Are there any abnormalities?"

"It's a bit lonely, but otherwise...wait. Have any of you been opening portals again?"

"Why does it matter?"

"The radiation from them scared off the Zoni about three months ago."

"No. Not that I know of." Clank went silent for a second. "So you're implying that the Zoni are gone again?"

"Haven't seen any for a week."

"Heads up Sigmund, we have lost power to a Zoni battery. I recommend preparing for a significant power loss."

"I've already cut the unnecessary stuff. What else should I do?"

"Do a deep scan for all disturbances and fix them. Then, cut the power to all tertiary machinery."

Sigmund entered the command in his personal machine. Clank remained online.

"Starting deep scan...Calculating remaining power...forty percent." the lady voice of the computer processed out loud.

"FORTY PERCENT?!"

"No joke. I recommend the slow scan...unless your feeling a little bit risky."

"Slow scan."

"Caution, this scan will get rid of ALL disturbances, even if they are beneficial. Confirm?"

"Confirm."

"Starting slow scan, time remaining, 3 days 14 hours."

"Clank, should I be freaking out right now?"

"No, but if this lasts another week, we will be in trouble. Hate to leave, but I can't leave Ratchet for too long. I'll check back in a couple of days."

Clank disconnects. He then jumped off the battery, using his heli-pack to break his fall. Ratchet, hearing the entire conversation, could clearly tell Clank wasn't any happier than when he went up there.

Ratchet put his hand on Clank's shoulder.

"There's always a way out. If there weren't, we would not be here."

"Do you think all of them died?" Clank still had his head down.

"Don't know, but we'll investigate. Let's get out of here."

* * *

Thanks for reading. Don't forget to give this a like, put a comment in the comment section below and suscr... Wait. Forgot this wasn't Youtube.

All that I ask for is a review. Constructive but Honest is best.

Have a quarktastic day!


	2. One Left

Well, the good news is that I didn't lose all of you in the first chapter. Hopefully I don't lose all of you in this one, either.

This one is a bit more intense.

 **Chapter 2 – One Left**

 **Planet Fastoon**

Fastoon, once epic, now desolate. It's been a little more than twenty years since the Lombaxes were expelled from the planet, and still, it ranks second lowest in population in the Polaris galaxy. There is no exact number, but good estimates indicate about 25 intelligent creatures live on this planet. These inhabitants are die-hard adventurers and archeologists, all trying to find lost Lombax secrets.

Except one. Meet Rosa, a newborn when she was mistakenly left behind by her own parents during Tachyon's Invasion. Hard to blame the parents, though. It got close to panic at times. The only way she didn't get killed was by hiding behind a fairly large, rugged rock (after discovering something shiny, of course). Located near the edge of the sparse forest, it was a place no hostiles checked out.

After the initial attack, another creature encountered the near total destruction of this once successful village. This adult was not a Lombax, just a creature helping the Lombaxes. He was caught in the drama and became stranded himself (he didn't live on this planet). He glanced over every flattened home, seeing if he could find a sole sign of life.

He did. That is, after checking every home, listening for any moans or cries for help, and losing all hope. He found the tiny girl munching on red-light roses. They got their name from their glowing red color at night. Nutrition was fairly light in the large heads, relative to the stems, but they were more than edible.

There was no way to get her to the Lombaxes. He thought all of them perished. They simply dimensionated. There was also no way to leave the planet, everything was utterly destroyed, including the cruiser he used to get here. The only solution left was to go into hiding. Tachyon was not done with this place yet. He could come back anytime. It didn't take them long to find a storage container just a quarter mile from the ruins. It was a fair-sized storage unit, big enough to encompass two rooms of the typical Lombax house. It was here that the now father would raise the girl...

...For six years. But one day, he went out, only for it to be a one way trip. He was performing normal food gathering. It was the usual, berries and a bit of meat. That just so happened to be the day that Tachyon decided to initiate a quick check on the ruins. They quickly spotted and executed him just beyond village limits.

Today, Rosa was still as alive as ever. She stood quite short, about five-sixth of meter high. She was quite lean too, not in the least muscular.

Around her, a healthy selection of tutorial books were stacked on a standard steel table. By them, an assortment of her creations, including remote controlled spaceships, built just like how it would be if it were life sized. There was also a standard blaster, almost identical to the one that was in the storage container originally. Short holo-films sat to the side of the table, on the ground. Finally, there was a very meager amount of metal and nanotech. The storage unit wasn't completely empty when they arrived.

She built her own armor with grade 2 carbon-steel with blue-grade (the lowest grade) nanotech infusion. The main colors were red, as red as red can be and black, as black as black can be. In sunlight, sprinkles of a shiny blue can be seen as a result of the nanotech. The whole suit was well polished. It acted like a light reflector if the sun shined at the right slope.

On her belt, she had a small plasma cutter. Shaped like a container of chap-stick (and about the same size), this was so powerful it could be used as a weapon! Second, she had an audio multiplier, just in case she encountered someone. On her right would be her Destructor Beam. A small, one-handed weapon powered by a charge core, this can deploy a searing white beam that can cut armor. The best part; it charges itself. No need to buy ammo, or charge the flexible weapon.

All in all, she was an inventor. And she wanted to escape. She didn't want the life of a person in the shadows any longer. In her mind, she knows valuable time had been lost with waiting in stalling nervousness. She wasn't a complete emotional wreck, but she wasn't close to confident either.

The female musters up enough courage to open the lid to adventure.

She goes out…

…and there's nothing. Of course there's nothing. Same as it has been the last three years, Just forest. Still not a very dense forest; the trees are at least fifteen feet apart. She slowly strolls through the debatable jungle, footsteps making what seemed to be the only sound in the area. Constantly, she looked around, trying to be positive that there is no one around. Not a soul.

Before long, she approached a hill as tall as a Blargian Snagglebeast, magnified fifteen times over. There was nothing too special about this hill. There were no trees, just lime-green grass. And a few flowers. And a spaceship.

A spaceship! An escape! Rosa rushed to the top of the hill and found; the ship had crash landed. The potential escapee knew it was too good to be true. Inspecting the blue spaceship with black racing lines, she could tell it was fairly generic. It had only the essential features, plus a couple of general upgrades a junior explorer would need; a basic shield and enhanced radar.

She could tell it had been abandoned for a while. The thick scars left in the ground had a healthy layer of grass on it.

The ship had extensive damage. The left wing was bent backwards significantly and the tip was torn off. The right wing was preserved well, but more damage was present in the body. There were scrapes and dents galore. There was even a gouge in the left side of the nose.

Despite all of this, Rosa knew the only challenge will be time, the time required to fix the ship. Actually fixing the ship is no problem. She had been building her remote controlled spaceships more complicated than this.

Onward with the work.

 **Two days later**

Another day, another calm day in Fastoon. It was a steady sun with scarce clouds. There was actually a light drought affecting the area, though the damage was limited at this point. The grass was still green, and all of the idle forestry was still growing.

Rosa had made considerable progress on the ship. All of the gouges were repaired. The bent wing was returned to a reasonable position. Bumps and scratches still permeated the basic cruiser, but the ship was able enough to fly at slow speeds. Looking at the internals, most were unharmed in the crash. The only component damaged was the one that was least expected in the ship. The gravi-metric warp drive.

It was a low end utility. It needed a long time to charge and needed nearly full throttle to activate. However, to see one in a vehicle this basic was rare.

Rosa was also able to get the UHD+ (Ultimate High Definition Plus) space radio working. With the volume set at 15%, the audio moved softly though the calm air. She didn't outright enjoy the rock music that was playing, but it help to make the repair a little less monotonous. She was concentrating on smoothing out the shallow scratches, until the music was interrupted by the cliché galactic news theme.

"Good evening! This is Kip Darling, and this is breaking news."

It was morning where she was.

"There was blood. There were bitter relationships formed. There were probably a few casualties. But the second investigation into the ship crash of Angela Cross has concluded. The cause: engine damage causing failure. While this fact remains unchanged from the first investigation, we have a bit more specifics. The ammo used was grade two piercing pellets. There were many shots fired. A couple more holes were noted on the right wing."

There was a short pause while Kip switches papers.

"The statement also says that this was a slow speed crash. Additional damage was done to the bottom and to the nose. There was no ejection. The investigators put the chance of survival at ninety-nine percent, with only minor injuries probable."

The newsman looked up.

"To clarify, this is not a confirmation of her survival, just a good deal of evidence for it. We have sent additional investigators to Sargasso in hopes of more answers. We'll air any additional information we receive. We now return to your regularly scheduled program."

There was no theme music to wrap up the segment. The currently playing song cut back in, while Rosa focused her attention back on those light scars. She couldn't think much of the issue. She never heard of her, and there was nothing she could do.

There was only thirty seconds left of that song. Everyones' favorite, Captain Slag, was now the host on Galactic Radio Network.

"Attention landlubbers! This be Pirate Appreciation Week! To celebrate, we will be airing special pirate oriented holo-films, both on this network, and on channel 225. Here's a sneak peek at our first fine selection."

An announcer, in a deep voice, teases.

"It's everyone's favorite superhero. It's everyone's favorite pirate. It's surely everyone's favorite action flick. It's...

Captain Vs. Captain."

"You won't be a-head for long, mustachio!"

"Me don't even have a mustache you mangy rat! Prepare to walk the Plank of Eternal Despair!"

"Join us as we watch one of the most, passionate, dirty, word filled combats in fighting history."

"Be it true you were dispatched by a piece of Drek? That explains yer foul smell."

"Well, Slag on a stick doesn't smell much better!"

"Starring Captain Quark as Captain Quark, and Captain Slag as Captain Slag. Guaranteed to shock you, or your loot will be returned. Rated Arrrrrrrrrrrrr for graphic violence, distasteful jokes, and a bit of audience regret. Airs tomorrow. See you there."

Another song played.

Not even four minutes later, a star ship entered the atmosphere. Seeing the small fireball streak vigorously across the sky blue, Rosa moved herself to the side of the ship opposite theirs. It was more of a cautious move. She definitely did not want to be caught while trying to escape.

Was it a friend? Was it a foe? Even when the ship touched down at a lower elevation than her, she could not tell. Three doors opened, one lifted up toward the front, and the two doors in the back row opened, from each side, upwards. She counted the personnel. There were nine, and maybe one more still in the ship (she saw small movements). Eight of them looked similar. Basic analyzation could tell they were large, purple, and their teeth were nasty. The ninth looked like the leader of the other eight. He was just a couple inches shorter than them. On his pitch black shirt was a strange symbol that Rosa couldn't tell. His skin was quite crusty is spots, perhaps as rough as coarse sandpaper. Even though he was less bulky than those stacked jocks, he appeared more difficult to hurt (or kill). The most blatant object, however, was the Ultra-Megaphone 20R he was carrying in the right hand.

He wasted no time in using that megaphone.

"SINCE YOU PATHETIC THUGS ARE SOMEHOW UNABLE TO HEAR DIRECTIONS GIVEN NORMALLY, I ASSUME IT'S BECAUSE ALL OF YOU ARE DEAF! **CAN ALL OF YOU HEAR ME?!** "

"Yes sir!" All of the so-called thugs said in somewhat of a salute.

"GOOD! I HOPE ALL OF YOU KNOW THAT THIS IS THE LOMBAX RUINS! IF NOT, THEN YOU'RE AN IDIOT! THERE ARE ONLY THREE RULES FOR THIS MISSION! YOU ARE TO STEAL ANYTHING OF VALUE! YOU GET A BONUS FOR ANYTHING THAT MEETS MY APPROVAL! YOU ARE TO KILL ANY ZONI THAT YOU SEE! NO EXCEPTIONS! YOU ARE TO KILL ANYONE ELSE THAT GETS IN YOUR WAY! NO EXCEPTIONS! THESE ARE ORDERS OF DR. NEFARIOUS! CAN THESE DIRECTIONS GET ANY MORE CLEAR?!

"Yes!.. I mean, no sir!" the thugs corrected themselves.

"IF YOU DARE FAIL ME, YOU SHALL BE ANNIHIALATED! GET MOVING!"

Off the thugs went to scourge the lonely remnants. It was like most other populaces Tachyon destroyed. The buildings were almost as crumbly as chalk left in water. The whole scene looked as old as a western movie set a hundred years ago. However, it still looked like the ruins Ratchet visited just a few years back.

Rosa really wished she had left earlier. She actually got to the point where she could carelessly wander around, but the arrival of 'Dr. Nefarious's Thugs 4 Less' dashed any chance that freedom would continue. It was way more than an inconvenience. She was actually more afraid now than when she was in late hiding. Unfortunately, she still had to escape. She peered at the hostile source one more time, still huddled behind her transportation device. Now, there was some sort of stereotypical robotic butler accompanying the aggressive leader. It was the type of butler that would be absolutely dreadful to be friends with. The only thing they seemed to be doing was having a conversation.

It was then she realized there was the audio multiplier on her. Not the type you wear in your ear. Rather, there was a small speaker for the output. Positioning the miniature audio device in front of her face, closer to the right side, the wealth of information began as she flipped the switch.

"Nice to see you, Lawrence." The angry shouter sarcastically remarked, seeing that it took more than five minutes for him to get out of the not-so-tight vessel.

"Always exceeding expectations, sir."Lawrence was still the same as ever. A miniscule amount of rebellion, but an overwhelming amount of monotone and eerie calm.

"Does Nefarious really distrust his workers so much as to send you as a surveyor?"

"Considering the fact that he has been overrun by the same Lombax several times, the answer is almost certainly, yes."

A strange look covered the commander's face. He was new to this evil, and had limited knowledge of who Ratchet, or Nefarious were.

"How is Nefarious still a leader?"

"Fear, and a bit of creativity, perhaps." Lawrence could not think of much to praise Nefarious on. Most certainly, he did not even care.

Lawrence was being much better of a scout than the other leader was. He was simply staring at the direction of Lawrence, who was scanning the area for any irregularities. Some trees over there. Devastation close by. Industrial quality buildings to and fro. And a ship on the hill.

"Sir, did anyone check about that ship over there?" Lawrence was seen positioning his pointed finger in line with Rosa's repair.

"What?" the unsuspecting commander spoke, rushing to the position just to the left of Lawrence.

"This is absolutely fantastic!"He said with great anger, kicking a rock by him in the process.

It was time to use the megaphone again. This time, with the LRC-130 (Low Range Communication-130).

"ATTENTION! THERE IS A SHIP UP ON A HILL JUST OUTSIDE OF THE RUINS! ANY TWO OF YOU MUST INVESTIGATE IMMEDIATELY!"

"Already a better leader that Nefarious." Lawrence sighed.

"Llllawrence!" A high- pitched, male voice could be heard from Lawrence's satellite communication device.

"Where are you Lawrence?!"

"Right here sir."

"Is the mission a go?"

"The troops were sent out just a few minutes ago."

"Did you find anything?" Yes, this was Nefarious. And yes, he was very impatient.

"There is a _small_ matter that just came up."

The expression on Nefarious's face remained unchanged. After the assistant knew he wasn't going to respond, he turned the device around, so that the vessel in repair could be seen.

"We have spotted this vessel just outside the Lombax ruins. The are two troops en route to investigate."

"ANNIHIATE IT!"

"Very good, sir. If you don't mind, I would like to scout the area a little more."

Lawrence found mild joy in cutting off Nefarious, which is exactly what he did here.

–

Rosa sped to a group of trees, fifty feet away, when the order that almost blew out the speaker off of her amplifier was announced. Her ears were still ringing from that sound blast. She could swear all of this was like a scene from a holo-horror. Looking through the squint of where two trees fused together, her heart raced in anxiety and nervousness.

They were getting close. Footsteps on the crispy grass, still green, crackled in the immediate area, sound spreading outward for a considerable distance. It didn't take an ace to know that they were marching. At the very least they were marching toward the side opposite of where she hid. With anticipation (and a bit of fear), her first semi-encounter with Nefarious troops commenced. The troops' names were Fred and Todd, as noted by their "Fred4Less" and "Todd4Less" labeled banners that they wore.

"What Is this?" Fred scoffed. He loved epic spaceships. This was an insult to him.

"Fred! Stay away from the space junk! It has mind control!" Todd's voice was higher than Fred's. He knew what happens when Fred sees bad ships.

"It's...pathetic. A disgrace!" Fred raged, kicking the starboard side of the nose, forcing a crevice in the vessel.

Todd was marginally more obedient than Fred. He managed to search the ship, but found nothing more than a small wallet in the compartment on the lower left. The wallet wasn't Rosa's. It was the crash victim's. This would be what was the most valuable find of the mission. There were a few hundred bolts worth of bills (you could trade these for actual bolts), plus a few coupons.

"Hehe. Finders keepers."

"Hey! I wasn't ready! Give me some of that!"

"Hmmm… a 270 bolt bonus isn't bad..."

Thugs get half of the money they find. The rest goes to the operation. Fred was getting ready to pummel Todd. Seeing his frustration, he handed him one of his newly found discounts.

"Sixty percent off of a second row seat. Doctor of Destruction's destructive death drag derby dealing dismal devastation." Fred read. "A forty-nine bolt savings. Includes snacks and a meal afterward."

Fred shrugs and puts the cheap piece of paper in his left pocket.

"Here's another." Todd giggled.

"Night of the Living Squishies, parts one, two, and three."

Fred reads in a little more detail.

"What kind of deal is this!?" Fred yelled, throwing the coupon in Todd's face. "Give me some bolts!"

"I'll tell you what. You fly that ship. For every ten feet you make it up in the air, I'll give you one bolt."

"I'm not stupid! Give me the bolts!"

Fred started a charge toward Todd. Todd bolted for their cruiser. Fred stopped at the hind end of the vessel, giving it one last evil stare.

"Never again."

Fred really hated this putrid garbage. He gave it one more kick, almost puncturing the fairly cheap aluminum compound.

After sensing the area was free from thugs, Rosa, still still slightly shaken, inspected the damage they have done. None of these two dents were critical. Thank goodness! The last issue she wanted was to spend extra time dealing with these assassins. She turned her focus to the nearly disposable warp drive. The need for this was exceptional. Who knows what is lurking in this galaxy, near this planet?

There are two problems, however. First, there was significant structural damage to the drive, and would need additional metal to repair. Second, she had no metal with her. Backtracking was necessary.

Her stroll through the loose forestry was even more cautious than the first time through. She tried to step so lightly as to not make a noise. The feet were so silent they didn't even scare the birds three feet from her. She hid behind every single tree within thirty feet of the path. It took an eternity, plus fifteen minutes, for the traversal to conclude.

She was two strides away her goal. She went for it.

"Oh, perfect timing. Thought I would miss you."

It was Lawrence. Rosa tried to stop, but stumbled and tripped, throwing herself on the solid floor. As soon she fell, she surged backward a few paces.

"You seem to be rather worried." Lawrence curiously pointed out.

"Who is this Nefarious you work for?" Rosa quickly shouted, adrenaline matching anxiety. Unlike Ratchet, she had no experience dealing with the first assistant of the second most wanted criminal in recent Polaris history.

"So you know. How did you get this information?"

There was no response. Lawrence didn't really care about capturing her, nor harming her in any way. This was actually one of the more intriguing moments he has had.

"I assure you that Nefarious is nothing more than a lunatic."

Nefarious connected to Lawrence just as he could hear the second part of that statement.

"Llllawrence!"

"Yes sir."

"Who were you calling a lunatic!?"

"Just a couple of troops."

Nefarious was not convinced.

"Did you annihilate the spaceship yet?"

"The ship was deemed annihilated already, sir."

"How?" Nefarious was skeptical.

"Crashed beyond repair."

There was a brief moment of silence.

"Did you find any thing else?" Nefarious said in a state of permanent annoyance.

"Just a couple of meaningless artifacts. The troops are working unexpectedly hard, however. We'll find something, soon. Bye, bye."

"Wait!"

 _Beep._ He cut off Nefarious again.

"I would highly advise that you stay out of the way of our operation. They tend to be a bit trigger happy down there."

Lawrence quickly turned and navigated toward the ruins.

Rosa frantically checked for a sufficient piece of metal. She searched both where she slept and where she was working on her creations. Not only was she not able to salvage much, most of it was too weak to use.

Should she try to escape with the ship in the condition that it was in? She concluded that this was not a good idea. The most likely problem that would occur is a misfiring of the warp drive, if it worked at all. She had to get the metal, and most likely spot for this was inside the Lombax ruins, whatever wasn't stolen, anyways.

Could she have waited a little longer to go out, when the thugs were gone? When would they? There was nothing predictable about that commander. He could have made them work until they dropped if he wanted to.

She, with great care, made her way to the upper Lombax ruins. There was a lethal-sized fissure than ran through the south side. Anything north of this was called the upper ruins.

The town was very silent, with only a sporadic creak coming from the opposite side of where she was. The coast is clear, for now. Rapidly she went to the seemingly more industrialized part of the town, trying to keep as much stealth as possible. Much to her disappointment, this area was mostly used for defense. The area was remarkably undamaged, so much so it almost sparkled.

Unbeknownst to her, Lawrence caught a glimpse and started a rather leisurely pursuit. The only way he eventually caught up was the fact that he strolled non-stop; Rosa was searching all over. It was in a familiar, circular room where they met up.

"Oh dear. Such a dreadful place for you to be in."

Rosa shot around. Her heightened state of fear the surprise meeting caused subsided a little once she realized who this intruder was.

"Nothing good about this wretched place."

"What do you want from me?" Rosa had enough courage to exclaim. She could tell Lawrence was the type who would rather have moderate misery for all (even on his side), rather than exceptional misery for one.

"Nothing really. Working with the boss gets _dreadfully_ boring. Need to get out once in a while."

"So what's so bad about this place?"

Rosa was no less cautious. A fair distance, nearly across the room, separated the two.

"Quite a few Lombaxes ejected themselves out of the dimension when Emperor Tachyon trashed the area. Fatally unprepared these Lombaxes were. This place is called the Court of Azimuth. Named after Alister Azimuth, a Lombax who is considered selfish, at best."

He was not lying. Trying to bring the Lombaxes back while destroying everything else was not something a man of character would do.

"Terribly sorry, but I have a bunch of other matters to deal with. This moment has been, unique. Until next time."

Lawrence stepped down the stairs, and out of view. Rosa had the same intention, but waited a considerable amount of time before starting again. Lawrence was starting to seem even more unpredictable than the commander, just _much_ less aggressive. She reached the bottom of the stairs, and stopped. She could swear she could hear a faint rush of air behind her.

"Spying on us aren't you?" A deep voice blasted from the same direction.

There was no time. The thug grabbed her by the neck, lifting the now dangling female. He oriented her in such a way as to have her looking directly at him.

"No response? I'll take that as a yes."

"No! Wait!" Rosa yelled, overcoming the initial state of shock.

"Thugs! Look what we found here!" Chet screamed. Yes, even he has his special 'Chet4Less' advertisement.

Rosa tried to get herself out of his crushing grasp, but to no avail. It was like she was supported only by a solid, bent steel beam around the neck.

"Hmm… significantly armored."

Chet slammed Rosa on the wall just around the corner from the stairs. Rosa closed her eyes and blacked out as the thug wound up his muscular upper limb. He swung with all the strength he could, trying to crack the red and black helmet. His fist collided near the front of the head shield, producing a loud, ringing echo as metal hit metal. The only object he ended up cracking, however, was the wall behind Rosa.

"Dang. This makes the weapon choice easy."

Chet was decently surprised at the strength of the armor. Visually, it seemed as though it was of moderately-low resistance. In reality, it offered moderately-high resistance.

His grip on Rosa loosened when he struck her, allowing the inactive body to fall. Only briefly though, as he wanted to finish her off, now that the others were around.

"This must be the life form who crashed on that spaceship." Fred pointed out, attempting to put the pieces together.

"I've got the perfect weapon for that one!" Another thug named Rusky stated.

"C'mon! Give me the kill!" The most bloodthirsty of them all demanded.

"All of you! I caught her, I kill her! Does anyone have a heavy plasma striker I could use?"

"Right here sir."

Lawrence was carrying the golden weapon. Not literally, though. The heavy plasma striker, similar to the standard plasma striker, had better armor piercing capabilities, at the slight expense of range. The weapon was quite dense (about the mass of Clank), and was about as long as the negotiator.

Rosa had woken up, but was again in the clutches of the thug. With Chet having the massive piece of metal in his left, and her in the right, she violently tried to break free. He just smirked, knowing she was just twigs compared to his brass.

"Just kill her already!" A couple of them said.

Chet lifted her, arm around the chest. Knowing what was about to happen, Rosa, trembling, laid her hand near the Destructor Beam. He positioned the barrel of his gun at slightly above the absolute left side of her head.

"It won't hurt if you don't move." Chet whispered to the still resisting victim.

After hearing that, Rosa removed the gun enough so that she could grip the handle. Finally, Todd caught on to what she was doing.

"Chet! She has a gun!" Todd urgently yelled.

The warning came too late. Chet was mere seconds from pulling the trigger when Rosa pulled out the beam and swung it around, the projection being aimed at the top of the thugs chest. All while being locked into place by the thug, she held the trigger down, sending a clean, but searing, beam straight into him. He screamed as the pain forced a release of both the gun and her.

She didn't even hold the trigger down for two seconds. Chet fell to the ungiving ground, motionless. Rosa braced her fall with her arms, got back up and looked around.

Everyone was frozen. She joined the group when she saw the instant carnage she had caused.

He was dead. She had _killed_ him.

"KILL HER!" Three of the thugs blasted, sound strong enough to be heard throughout the ruins.

Rosa bolted. All seven thugs charged. She had to jump over the reach of two troops blocking her only escape. Her foot barely caught their purple shoulders, forcing a balance correction when she landed. She got up to speed when a Constructo Shotgun shell was fired. The shot popped, and sent incendiary shrapnel flying everywhere ahead. A couple slivers hit the thugs off to the side, but the majority that reached a target hit the back of Rosa.

All of the projectiles failed to make it past the armor (though some did stick). She continued her run-for-her-life, greatly exceeding the speed of the thugs. After making it out of the most sturdy part of the town, she veered off to the right, heading toward the forest. There was no use being quiet now, with potential killers just three seconds behind. She just entered when a shell exploded a few feet behind her. She didn't look back. There was no stopping her escape.

"Ouch!" Rosa exclaimed after taking a hit to the left shoulder. The armor allowed enough force to go though so that she could feel pain.

Looking behind for the first time, she tapped the trigger at the offender, who happened to be closest to her. She looked back ahead, and heard great pain coming from the thug, who had his hands on his belly. More shots were fired, whipping past her like standing next to a racing hoverboarder. For the last time, she poked the trigger, sending another thug, off in the distance, reeling in pain.

Now past the hiding place, she allowed a full eight seconds ahead of the remaining chasers. However, her lungs and legs were getting increasingly sore. While she had great velocity, her stamina was lacking. The quick decision was made to head toward the ship in partial repair. The troops were too far behind to do anything besides making a blind shot.

Using all of her remaining energy, she ran the final sprint to the escape, with her reaching the destination in about thirty seconds. She went so fast she ran into the left of the ship, producing a single "Clink". She raised the cock pit cover by simply lifting it up, and jumped inside, seeing the personnel approaching quickly.

She slammed the cover and hooked the emergency latches into place. Finding the key that she hid in plain sight (yes, there were keys in this), she tried to power up the engine. She was greeted by the sound of continuous failure.

"Come on..."

 _WHAM!_

One of the remaining thugs also crashed into the ship, just with a lot more weight. He then tried to pry open the lid, putting massive stress on the latches.

Rosa tried again. Same thing happened. More troops tried to pull up on the cover. They were able to crack it open a little, maybe half an inch at most.

"Work!" Rosa yelled in a desperate voice.

There was no other option. Only the ship could save her. She started a third attempt when one of the thugs got smart. Climbing on the "hood" of the aerial vehicle, he pointed the constructo shotgun (modified for maximum spread) dead-on with her head. Rosa simply had to stare at her fate.

 _BANG!_

Pellets exploded forward, surging toward Rosa's forehead.

 _CRACK!_

The shrapnel showered the window, every single piece emitting a pop upon collision. All of the displaced plastic compound created a brief and small fog.

It was over. Four of the five commandos cheered, waving their guns in the air.

"Nice shot!" Todd praised.

"Eh, nothing really." Fred stated, shrugging his shoulders, but looking proud.

Rosa opened her eyes, shaking, but unharmed...somehow. Allowing a few seconds to regain her vision, she could see that the celebration was premature. None of the pellets made it through the cover! With as much stealth as possible, she tuned over the engine. The cheering muffled most of the ignition. It took almost four seconds, but the engine finally initiated.

The thug, still on the hood, pointed the shotgun at her a second time. She slammed the steering mechanism down, violently throwing the ship straight upward. The killer was sent up about twenty feet before flying off the nose, plummeting toward the group.

"WHAT KIND OF SLOTH RENEGADES ARE YOU?! SHOOT THE SHIP DOWN!"

These were the last words Rosa heard, before sending her ship close to mach speed.

After passing through half the atmosphere, she accelerated and started charging up the warp drive. That drive _was_ cheap. It took a full minute to completely charge. Clenching the lever tightly, she tilted it forward, giving the ship the surge of the power needed to warp.

But it misfired.

The force knocked the ship out of balance. Rosa tried to maintain control, but it was very difficult to when the ship was being forced left and right quickly. The light-blue streak that outlined the path of dizziness could be seen faintly by the thugs. It was actually not that dizzy, but it was like a bunch of Ss chained together.

She was turning sharply to the left when, suddenly, she felt like she was floating. The drive finally kicked in. She let go of the steering wheel, not knowing what was going on for a second. It felt like eternity in this weird spinoff of a dimension.

 **An eternity later…**

The ship shot out the other side of the reality distorting warp, spinning so violently that Rosa couldn't see which way she was rotating. There was something relatively close, but Rosa could make out what the beam-like mass was. The centripetal force was so strong she couldn't move any more than a mirror screwed on to the wall. Well, she was able to steer enough to make wide turns. With her rotating left as the went into the warp, it made sense to her to turn the wheel to the right.

A couple minutes of holding the wheel at that position helped greatly. She relaxed when the ship was simply drifting...

...toward the mass now distinguishable as a planet. To keep the ship from plunging, she fired up the engines.

But they wouldn't initiate. The misfiring of the warp drive took out most of what was left of the engines. This vessel was not much more than a paper airplane now.

There were 320 miles to fall. She couldn't tell which would be harder, trying to survive the landing, or trying to survive the fire that would soon engulf her. All she could do is hold her breath in helplessness.

It didn't take long for the latter. The star ship's speed went seven-fold the maximum that Rosa would ever travel inside a planet's atmosphere. She tensed as she entered the "hot zone". Even from inside, one could tell they were in some sort of meteor, given all of the fire and blazing heat around the ship. The heat seeped through the weakest points of the body, slowly disintegrating them.

"Warning. Internals above recommended temperature. Get to cooler climate soon." The notification alerted.

The thermal energy surrounding was as high as the tension of the situation. Rosa tried to keep the ship as steady as possible, while setting her head on the solid aviation controller. It was all hope from here. Taking quick glances toward the outside, small streaks of metal were being torn off at a constant rate. The vessel was in a nose dive. Air was starting to thicken. She dropped the controller, trying to get the ship as level as possible.

As the transport started to angle progressively upwards, the tip of the right wing broke off. A spiral the ship was sent in, as the red and yellow flicker show slowly came to an end. She turned sharply to the right, but the vessel wouldn't stray from it's delirium causing spin. Continuing to tilt the ship upward still had some success, however, as air resistance had some leveling effect (more than what little power the space junk had). She continued these procedures for most of the remaining descent.

She approached ground level at panic inducing speed. This was not going to be a gracious landing. Luckily, and somehow, she managed to get the ship to glide (kind of), albeit in somewhat narrow circles. Looking perpendicular to ground, there was a combination of scattered, very tangled looking trees and various buildings, seeming to be randomly placed. She tried to shove the ship away from a building, but ended up clipping a fairly tall but bare-bones tree. The left wing was strong enough to handle the marginal impact, and sent the star ship into a spin.

With a sudden but slight shift, the vessel spun toward the top of a flat-roofed, sturdy garage like a spinning firework with not enough powder to maintain lift.

 _THUD!_

There was more horizontal speed than vertical at the point of contact. The remains scraped across the roof, producing showers of sparks and making a painfully high-pitched screech. So much momentum was available that the skid was complete, ship flying off the front of the handy man's building.

She made it. Barely. Several unique emotions filled her. Knowing not what emotion to display, she sat there, partially stunned. She tried to come to her senses as a Blaarg, short, middle aged, and brown-haired, rapidly approached where she was. The pounding on the cracked lid startled her back into a state of clarity.

"Hey! You okay in there?" His voice had a mild hint of concern.

"Yes, I'm fine." she said, disbelieving herself a little.

"You sure?" A more relaxed tone was heard.

Rosa undid the four emergency latches. She tried to open it normally, but the whole lid slid and shattered upon merely touching the ground. The rest of the transport device did not fare much better. Any place that had dents before had at least holes now. Tears interrupted the metallic crust (what ever there was left). Vapors of smoke whisped away from the back. Definitely totaled.

Rosa ignored the last statement spoken.

"Where am I?" she wondered, still heavily breathing.

"Eudora."

Next chapter is a lot shorter, but no less serious.

Have a Qwarktastic Day!


	3. Extinction

100 views…

Forgot to edit chapter 2. That is why you didn't see any horizontal separators.

* * *

 **Chapter 3-Extinction**

 **Planet Nefarious (formerly planet Dimdra)**

A weak sun. Coal black sand. Life less than the tundra of Grelbin. An eerie, warm wind. All perfect examples of a planet that may not suit your fancy.

But there is one mastermind that loves it. Dr. Nefarious. Just not his assistant. Or his staff. Or really anyone else unfortunate enough to work for him. In the evil genius's eyes, the darker the better. Never mind the few troops almost choking from the thin air.

Another one of their "Nefarious headquarters" was built here. It was just about as large as the Nefarious space station. It couldn't be a Nefarious station of it didn't have his ridiculous, metallic face as the main structure. Other dictators of Polaris may have had greater bases, but this one takes the award for vanity.

Nefarious always looked annoyed. Anytime except when he was cheering his evil plans. He looked distraught even when concentrating on a piece of paper that had "good news" on it.

This time, though, he was more annoyed than usual. Was he inconvenienced by Ratchet and Clank? No, not recently. Was he humiliated by Lawrence? Kind of, but that wasn't the reason. There was no cause for this spike in vexation.

In the office that spans both of the eyes, Nefarious was idling at his office table near the left window of the room. He was awaiting the return of Lawrence. He was late. Fashionably late, as Lawrence would put it. His finger tapped against his chin and his foot tapped against the floor in anticipation.

 _Crash!_

"Oh dear me. Dreadfully sorry."

Lawrence was at the bottom of the fifty steps when he ran into a maid, spilling cleaning supplies all over the office floor hallway. Being the uncaring robot that he his, he simply walked away, offering no help.

"Very sorry sir." Lawrence was now talking to Nefarious, about two-thirds of the way up the stairs. "Been quite busy with the whole Zoni extermination deal."

Nefarious only talked when Lawrence reached the last step.

"Late again!"

"Fashionably."

Besides the normal wear, the assistant was boasting a top hat. It was simple, completely black, and made Lawrence appear almost as tall as Nefarious.

"Very Funny!" the mastermind grumbled. "What was the result of the mission?"

"Somewhat of a failure, sir. The one life form that got in our way escaped off the planet. We didn't find any Zoni, and we made one grand off of stolen items."

Nefarious's face was fuming with anger. He had enough of this treachery.

"MORON! You let it escape?!" Nefarious slammed his right fist against his table.

"I didn't. I found her. The thugs didn't kill her fast enough."

"RRRRRRRRRRRRRR" Nefarious growled. "Just once, JUST ONCE, I want a mission where squishies get annihilated! Why is this impossible?!"

"Well, your troops do have a poor track record..."

"I know that! Go away!" Nefarious balked, turning around in his chair.

"Sir, I have promising developments from project 'Zoniness Annihilation Overload Beta-9'."

"What." Nefarious quickly stated, his sitting appliance between them.

"First, the disturbance near the..." Lawrence clears his throat. "Hyper Ultra Supersonic Laser Cannon of scrambled Zoni Brainwaves, Mark 5.3, has disappeared."

Lawrence drew this out, a rather curious tone evident in his voice. Nefarious instantly spun his chair around, stopping perfectly in line with his assistant.

"How? It has been there for centuries!" Nefarious said with a glimmer of evil hope in his virtual eyeballs.

This portal was different in a couple ways compared to a dimensionator portal. One, it can only be seen by Zoni. Two, it has the same traces of time energy that the Zoni emit, allowing it to be seen by the Great Clock.

"We have no information at this time. We'll consider it... completely random."

The mastermind ignored the last half of that statement. His misery turned to joy in less time than a complete ejection off of a space ship. He knew Zoni travel in and out of that disturbance.

"No, more, Zoni." He thought out loud. "Yes! The Zoni are almost history! Command all troops to finish them off! Obliterate them! Annihilate them all!"

"Ah, that's the good news." Lawrence jumps in as he looks at his mini personal computer. "Recent Zoni energy scans show radiation levels of 2×10-19 standard units."

"What does that mean?"

"If all of the Zoni were on the edge of the galaxy, there would be at most, seventeen of them alive. However, most recent data shows an unusual spike. One of them is close, perhaps?"

Nefarious kept most of his cheery attitude. He was about issue commands for Thugs4Less and his own robots when Lawrence saw a shiny reflection off of his master's right side of the dark skull.

"Surely that would be the reason the levels have spiked."

Nefarious's head bolted up to Lawrence's, then to where his was pointing.

Out on the base of the base, was a solitary Zoni. Like any of the others, it was glowing the lightest of blues. It seemed as though it was searching for something, making small movements in random directions on occasion. As they are hive minds, this _one_ couldn't do much.

"Zoni! Give me a bomb."

"It is an SZEMP."

"I don't care what it is, give it to me."

Lawrence had a few of them in his pocket. He handed one to the boss, with him snatching it.

"Do be careful with that, sir.

…

Uh, sir?"

Nefarious chucked it at full strength. A perfectly executed throw. The bomb, designed to off in five seconds, beeped as it soared nearly horizontally. It bounced back off the window, up off the table, twice on the floor, and down the stairs before exploding a short distance down a hallway.

"Warning. Power failure on level eight."

Nefarious froze.

"Perhaps you should have opened the window, before you threw the bomb."

"Are you here to inform me or humiliate me?"

"Both, sir." Lawrence responded with a straight face.

Nefarious looked at Lawrence with great annoyance before walking toward the green window. Pressing the tiny red button to the right of it caused the glass sheet to move down quietly and slowly.

"Happy?"

"Couldn't be more glad."

The boss took another explosive from the same source. He wound up and threw the explosive device with great force. As accurate as a negotiator locked on to an enemy, the bomb beeped as it traveled farther and farther from his returning hand.

 _Bang!_

The gizmo went off just before it hit ground, and just before the special creature could react. Almost taking out the power to the base again, the release of energy was strong enough to burn out a few flood lamps that were surrounding. After what could be described as an energy wave, the creature fell over, incapacitated.

"Look who's the ace now, Lawrence!"

The assistant sighed. "Never knew two out of seven was considered an ace."

It took 45 seconds flat for Nefarious to speed out of his office, go all the way down eight flights of stairs, and end up in the gathering yard, where the severely stunned Zoni rested.

"The two-hundredth Zoni on this planet. This one deserves a special commemoration!" Nefarious exclaimed, staring directly in its face.

He snatched it up, holding it tight enough for a large squeezing force to be felt, but not enough to hurt it in any way.

"I have a gravity bomb ready, sir." Lawrence informed as he sneaked up behind him, holding out the blue, armored bomb.

"I have a better idea."

"Suit yourself."

Both of them started walking to their "sacred place". Almost as the villains reached the main building, the Zoni woke up out of its delirium. It initiated a teleport.

But it failed. It tried again. No success. Unsure of what happened, the pocket sized energy form tried to struggle its way out of the despicable monster's grasp.

"Let go!"

Nefarious chuckled. Not in an evil tone, but evil nonetheless.

"Let go!" The Zoni repeated, getting a little more worried.

"The two-hundredth Zoni caught on this planet, and possibly the last one in existence. Why would I let a twit like you go?" Nefarious questioned loudly.

Shocked was the Zoni to hear that.

"Zoni are not dead!" It said, defying lord of Zoni murder.

"Lllllawrence!"

"No need to yell so loud, sir."

"Prove 'em wrong."

Lawrence operated in his computer again.

"The Zoni nearby explains the one quarter standard unit radiation. Now, if we exempt _this_ one..."

The assistant held the square, aluminum box up to the magical creature, scanning it.

"...we _should_ get an accurate reading." Lawrence continued, waiting very patiently.

"4.4×10-22 standard units, plus or minus fifty percent."

"Sounds like annihilation!"

"There would be no more than _zero_ Zoni in this galaxy if it were true. While this guy's statement is plausible, It is rendered, useless. They would be too far away to make a difference."

"You've been owned!" Nefarious pointed his finger at the Zoni's face.

"What is the plan after this, exactly?" Lawrence questioned.

"We engage in robotic renegade magnetism!"

Lawrence tilted his head in confusion.

"We recruit more soldiers. Keep along, Lawrence."

"Very sorry. Should have seen that one coming." Lawrence responded without a care.

* * *

A short walk they took to a small, circular confine in the recreation area. The recreational area itself was circular, and had chairs to the right, and tabletop games to the left.

"Good job boss!" One of the thugs saw him with the Zoni, still struggling to get out of the grasp of death.

This confine was more of a trophy room, with lightly blue tinted windows encircling the largely aluminum room. There were several rows of shelves spaced no more than two feet apart. The trophies…

Zoni.

Well, at least their metallic remains.

199 of them. Equally spaced.

Their steps echoed as all three of them entered the "sacred" room. Tiles lined the bottom of the floor.

"Need any more proof?" Nefarious boasted. "This is just what we found on this planet! 540 on Quantos, 260 on Terachnos, 890 on Sargasso, around 1400 on Lumos, and many, many more. All in secret and all in surprise."

"You lie! No way Zoni die that easily!"

"I'm getting really tired of this Zoni." Nefarious ground his teeth.

Lawrence sighed, returning to his computer.

"Fellow Zoni, your biggest weakness is the energy you radiate. Once we were able to identify it, and isolate it, you were effortless to locate. This was why we were able to kill more than 15,000 with the Laser Cannon of Scrambled Zoni Brainwaves. Another 8,000 on Juno. An additional 7,000 in Irrit. On second thought, You actually killed yourselves trying to fight the behemoth."

"Enough talking, let's get to the annihilation!"

Unbeknownst to the Zoni, the mastermind had a Walloper, version three, in his right hand. With a small jerk of his left arm, he threw the helpless Zoni into the air like a baseball when you are the batter. As the magical creature fell from peak height, Nefarious swung, fist colliding with its abdomen. With the power amplified by impact multiplication, the pint-sized energy form flew backward into the side of shelf.

Strangely, the Zoni floated briefly after the fateful hit, despite losing that ability after the SZEMP blast. The collision with the shelf only dented the body, but the front had a decent sized hole.

One...

Two...

Three...

Four. The energy dissipated, and the crumpled leftovers fell to the ground, making a satisfying clang, for Nefarious at least. He walked over, picking up the tangled mess and setting it over on the top shelf.

"I must say, for once, congratulations." Lawrence was actually a bit surprised Nefarious completed a mission successfully.

"Just a walk in the park." Nefarious responded as he started heading back to his office.

"Before we celebrate, there are several issues we need to address." Lawrence suggested.

Nefarious never appreciated the fact that his assistant always looked at problems from a negative light.

"Always the bearer of bad news."

"First off, the Great Clock's operation is connected to the Zoni energy. If this extinction causes the Great Clock to malfunction, we will all perish."

"They will fix it. They always have." Nefarious remarked, meaning Ratchet and Clank.

"Second, Ratchet and Clank will be going after you. It would be most obvious to guess who would do such a thing."

"They don't know anything about the operation. Not yet." Nefarious countered.

"How about the girl that escaped our operation? She probably knows our goals and could very easily find out more."

Nefarious stopped and stared in front of him. He just realized the impact this seemingly small event had.

"You're right." He agreed as he slowly turned around. "Lawrence, tell the troops to keep an eye out for this girl. If any of you find her, Ignite her!"

"Very good, sir. Shall I also institute the 'Generously Lenient Bounty of Terror'?"

"Go ahead."

"Sorry to ruin the fun, but I have a few _minor_ calls to catch up on."

Actually, they were quite important.

* * *

The adventure continues next chapter (and especially chapter 5)…

Have a Qwarktastic Day!


	4. Ignition

**Chapter 4 – Ignition**

 _You have a bounty of 4,000 bolts on your head. Do not reply._

Always a good message to wake up to. Rosa managed to get that message from her newly created communication unit. Who was this person? How did he or she discover her so quickly? Why 'Do not reply'?

* * *

Rosa managed to crash near a part of Eudora with diverse industry. This planet itself is certainly not considered diverse. Good quality wood is what sets this place apart. However, it doesn't mean the planet does not have it's unique spots. Being near this place of advantage, Rosa took the opportunity to build a tolerable spaceship. Industry meant business, and business meant easy building (usually).

The ship that she built was dart shaped, making it extremely simple and easy to build (you literally need only four pieces of metal to build the body). Reinforced, highly heat resistant, double carbon-titanium plates constituted the shell. All of this was infused with red-grade (one step above blue) nanotech. This amplified the already red body when strong light was introduced. Two main weakness. First, it can't glide. It doesn't have wings. Losing all engines meant disaster. Second, her ship was so small she was forced to use thinner than usual armor-grade metal.

An assortment of engines lined the back, one for each of the five thruster exhaust ports. The biggest one in the center was super charged, the other four were standard. Seven more mini engines were present; three on the bottom, close to each of the corners and four on the sides (two on each, front and back). The bottom ones allowed for strictly vertical movement. The side ones were boosters, being able to jar the ship from side to side quickly. No need for stunts, as the barrel roll is replaced by strafing. The side boosters could also turn the ship around at zero radius.

After deciding to go back to the Polaris galaxy, she included a grav-o-metric warp drive in her arsenal. It was fairly basic. No need to have anything special when the engines offer an easy escape from most danger.

Battery cores, similar to what is used for backup in large computer manufacturing plants, made up the fuel source for this vessel. While not optimized for ship building, they offered a superior alternative to ion storage, for about the same price.

It took two days to clear her, but she finally got her eager hands on the weapons system. There were three projection barrels in total, all of them hooked up to ammunition modulators. With all of them at grade four, they are capable of pellet, explosive, and laser fire.

She had to build the shield drive herself. All of the pre-built ones were way overpriced. Rated at 24,000 points, it was about 3.5 times as strong as Aphelions. Recharging is a must for her. This can recharge at 2% per second.

A few other goodies could be found around the ship. The computer system was made from M-40 sisterboards. It was a rather moderate design, being built well, but not including all features found in a luxury ride. It had a radar system which had enhanced forward scan capabilities for her increased speed she would be traveling.

The spaceship could be considered an all-around ship. In Polaris Defense Force terms, it would be a class four custom fighter (due to the strong weapons system and shield). Just the class specification alone would value the vessel, at minimum, 275,000 bolts at retail. She built it for about 75,000 bolts. She got the money from her guardian at Fastoon (he permitted her to take the money if something happened to him).

* * *

Her decision to return to the Polaris galaxy surprised more than a few people. She wasn't sure of the judgment herself, considering that she almost got murdered there. It was unexpected that she would be warped to an entirely different galaxy, though. Perhaps other sectors in Polaris were safer.

Very little time was spent on anything else but her ship. It was well worth it. She didn't merely get on her feet again, she sprung. While casual ship builders looked the other way while she built, the true geeks were impressed with what she worked with. She wasn't joking when it came to choosing materials. Don't judge a book by it's cover. Or a ship by its body.

Her departure went dramatically smoother than her arrival. No problems whatsoever. The only issue that caught her eye was a slight drag on the shields regeneration when she entered the 'hot zone'. A theory was that the body plates were slightly thin. It would have been a major issue of the shields didn't recharge (she would have to repair or energize them every single trip).

Before the ship builder could warp, she had to fuel up. The battery was only charged to 20% when bought. Unfortunately, there were no fueling stations that would charge the battery (nothing powerful enough). Locals suggested Kerwan as the go-to place.

Quickly, as she went to Kerwan, she realized the cores held an extremely massive charge, surprising even her. Traveling to a planet this close used only 1.75% of fuel!

* * *

Metropolis was massive. Close to a billion lifeforms live compacted together. Nearing night, the whole scene was akin to an ocean with lightning bugs of all different colors, most of them fixed in position. She would have been lost without the navigation capabilities of the customized computer set.

With the unit instructing a divergence to the center to of the city, she navigated through steady but normally thin traffic. Once she saw the structure, it was blatantly obvious. She didn't know how she overlooked it. The docking station was high up, starting as high as a mini skyscraper, and extended to about as high as a standard skyscraper. With a LED-neon sign peaking over the top of the rectangular prisms surrounding it, creatures within a two mile radius would be attracted.

The fueling stations for battery-powered vehicles were right at the top. Only a couple of circular rows were devoted to them. Still, it was completely empty when Rosa arrived. Even when selecting the highest charge rate, it took all of ten minutes to "top off" the batteries.

The price per unit energy had a moderate decay as one would put more in their ship. She could swear the total price stayed in the seventies for the last third of the fueling. She paid and saw a thank you screen with an 'It's Quarktastic!' label to the bottom right. Whatever that meant.

There was no time to waste. She pressed the blue button on the steering mechanism to initiate the charging process. Considering this was a lower-end drive, she would need to repeat the process several times to get to Polaris. The drive was somewhat better than what was on the escape ship. It charges in forty seconds, and only takes an estimated 50% speed to activate.

After getting a safe distance away from the city, she started the release of energy that would take her to the Kell galaxy. That eerie feeling of weightlessness commenced once again, giving her goosebumps. Gosh, that wasn't enjoyable.

She had to repeat for the XM-4 galaxy…

...and the Bxyraa galaxy…

...and the Minel galaxy…

...and finally she got to Polaris.

The nerves subsided a little by that final teleportation. Outside, it was just a void. Other than a couple of stars, it was like someone lit a dark candle. Rosa wasn't particularly picky about where she ended up, just as long as she didn't get warped to a black hole. Not in a huge rush for time (or fuel), she set speed to low-cruise and headed to Igliak.

Rather leisurely this drive was. Probably the calmest moment she's had in some time. Nothing but the light hum of the engines, and Galactic Radio Network set to near lowest volume setting.

"Good afternoon. This is Kip Darling, your most charming news anchor. Over there is Stone Stonefield, the second most charming news anchor."

"I think you've got those lines flipped around. I'm clearly number one."

"Nope. And I've got evidence to back it up! Anyway, on to the breaking news."

Kip picked up the papers, looking less prepared than he actually was.

"The thriller continues. Our trusty journalists have miraculously interviewed a couple of Kerchu without getting assassinated. Stone, tell us what they found."

" _Thanks Handsome_ _number 1_ _._ " Stone replied with a hint of sarcasm.

"We have received word that a Kerchu has seen Angela Cross walking away from the wrecked ship on Sargasso. If this is correct, we may have finally have gotten much needed information on this long mystery. However, this happened a loooong time ago. Many events have taken place during the last few years. This news man says: I need more convincing she's still alive."

"So Stone. Which is more incredible, the fact she survived, or the fact that everyone survived getting this information?"

"Well, the odds of getting your starship shot and surviving are a little lower than surviving a week in an Kerchu infested planet. So, I say the former."

"Well folks, you've heard it from the runner-up hotshot. Stay tuned, our forces are not done yet. More information surely to come."

She had no idea. Why was Angela Cross so famous? With her advanced personal communication device, she could try to find out. While the ship was not able to connect to IRIS, the smaller computer could. She picked up and started typing.

"Caution." the system alerted. Rosa's head shot up.

"A fleet of fifteen is moving to your position. Danger level: Minimal. Armor: Low. Shields: None. Weapons: All ships have dual grade one Pyrocitors."

Wait...what? Pyrocitors as weapons in space? Can they even work?

"What weapons?" Rosa asked, having the strangest look on her hidden face.

"All ships have dual grade one Pyrocitors. Maximum damage: One per second per Pyrocitor."

"Uhhh..." Rosa stuttered, confused as to the logic behind the desision.

Those flamethrowers should never be used as ammo for a fighter. In addition, a grade one Pyrocitor is supposed to be a _hand_ weapon, and a very basic one at that.

 _Bzzzzzt_. A robot cut in to give the not-so-suprising announcement of non-horrifying doom.

"Robots. We … have found the bounty."

These robots were nearly the same ones Dr. Nefarious used in his quest for the clock. The only stand-out difference is that these offenders have two eyes instead of one.

"Is this supposed to be some kind of joke?" She shouted.

"This is ... no joke. By orders of … Dr … Nefarious, you are to be … ignited."

She knew in an instant they took whatever orders they had _way_ too literally.

"Fine. Have it your way."

Rosa slowed the tiny ship to a stop. The entirety of ships circled around her, evenly and symmetrically spaced.

"Thanks a bunch."

Rosa shook her head and sighed. She was already attempting to contact the any defense force there may be. It would be better to get information to a large institution rather than simply defeating them herself. Only a couple of seconds passed before she encountered the name 'Polaris Defense Force'.

They unleashed the firestorm. Thirty jets of orange and scarlet glided over the thin shell of her capable fighter. Those robots did a very good job of blinding her view, but not at damaging it.

"Is it getting hot in there?" A courageous Nefarious trooper asked.

"Toasty." Rosa remarked.

"Great."

Rosa was just putting in the number for the Polaris Defense Force through the screen on the ship. PDF. Easy enough. On the line was an Agorian, somewhat smarter than average. He was quite tired and had a pint of XX Strong coffee where his right hand rested on the table.

"Hello. This is Polaris Defense Force. What can we help you with today?" he read off the script that is given to every phone line operator.

"Yeah, there are ships belonging to Dr. Nefarious that are torching me."

 _Pfffffffffffft!_

The coffee got ejected from his mouth faster than it came in.

"What?"

Rosa switched the display to her hand held device. She held the screen side toward the flicker show obscuring the Nefarious troopers.

"Um, You okay for a couple minutes?"

The Agorian tried not to be awkward, but he's never seen such ridiculousness.

"I'm good until they run out of fire."

"Okay, I'll get a commander on the line."

Quietness ensued briefly. Minimal draw on shield recovery was all the fire did. Do the robots realize that the vehicles are designed to handle atmospheric heating?

"So I hear Nefarious is attacking do I not?" a three mark captain simply stated.

"His robots are at least."

"Well, I can officially say he's hit a new low. How durable are the fighters?"

"Low armor, no shields."

The commander thought for a moment.

"So you're saying a bare bones ship with Pyrocitors?"

Apparently, Rosa was doing a pretty good job of making people nearly laugh of disappointment.

"Basically."

The commander had his hand over his face, which was tilted slightly downward.

"Look, the fact that Nefarious is attacking is concerning. We'll get the head master on. I'm sure you can handle a few extra minutes, since you lasted this long already?"

"I can."

"Can your system support type 1.2 connection or greater?"

"Yep."

"Good."

While the commander was busy socializing with the crowned champion, one of the robots gave the most laughable attempt at a question.

"Are you dead yet?"

Rosa was stunned more than an enemy after being hit with a Shard Reaper shell. After shortly gaining composure, she took advantage of their inability to think figuratively.

"Yep. I'm dead."

"Great. We'll send the good news to Dr … Nefarious."

She just shook her head.

"Hello. This is Talwyn from Polaris Defense Force. Who is this?"

"Rosa."

"I hear of a problem of enemies torching your ship, right?"

"Right."

"Okay Rosa, do you have radar?"

"Yes."

"Does your radar have a scan feature?"

"It does."

"Good. Can you scan the fleet and send the information to me?"

Rosa tapped the radar screen (located directly under the communication screen, facing upward) and touched the 'scan all' button. After the complete scan concluded, she sent the results to her.

"Thanks. How capable is your ship?"

"I could probably take them out in twenty seconds. I just wanted to contact someone about this."

"Nefarious again..." Talwyn mumbled to herself, reading the scan results. "Do you know any more about them?"

"Some guy named Lawrence, a commander, and Thugs 4 Less were at the Lombax ruins. They had orders to steal items, kill Zoni, and kill anyone else that got in their way. I barely escaped." Rosa explained without a hint of external sadness. Hiding for 20+ years tends to make some lifeforms a bit introverted and emotionless.

"Gosh..." Talwyn was taken aback. Her head was filled with pity for Rosa, and nightmares about what the extermination of all Zoni would mean.

"Are you okay? You're the first one other than the Zoni to be attacked." Talwyn questioned.

"I'm fine." Rosa repeated.

"Hold on, It will be just a second."

Talwyn turned and talked to the commander for only a few moments.

"Rosa, were sending a couple of destroyers your way. Stay put if you're not in imminent danger. It will make our work easier."

"Remaining stationary."

"Thanks a lot."

Talwyn disconnected. Rosa simply waited. The flowing incineration was almost like an intense sunset, just without the sun.

"Uh, Nefarious, we have connected."

"What?!" Nefarious could be heard off in the distance.

Lawrence was checking if Rosa was really dead. He had just as much trust of his workers as Nefarious.

"Hello there." Lawrence greeted with a diminishing pitch.

"What now, Lawrence?" Rosa said sternly. Her successful escape, plus the idiocy of the robots had increased her confidence modestly.

"I hear that our workers gave a dishonest service, am I right?"

"Obviously." She scowled.

"Oh dear me. Dreadfully embarrassing. Not for me, of course. Won't happen aga..."

"Enough!" Nefarious screamed, facing the assistant from the left and backhanding him.

 _OOF!_

He took the unit, putting his dismal face too close to the screen.

"So, this is the squishy that is giving us grief. At least I think it's a squishy. Lllawrence!"

"Down here, sir."

"Confirm squishiness."

"Very sorry, but we cannot determine squishiness if the target is behind another screen, sir."

The mere sight of the doctor sent waves of vibration through her armor. His close up stare slighly paralyzed the escapee, not unlike most other innocents. She tried, however, to get the location of the call. It was encrypted. Dang.

"I saw that!"

Rosa halted. Nefarious was switching from his lunatic form to his angry form.

"Oh, you're in for it now! Lawrence, send in the Annihilation!"

"May you specify the _Ann_ _i_ _hilation_ , sir?"

"Just send a couple of destroyers."

"Right away, sir."

"Might as well give up now, squishy. You're now high up on excessively short annihilation list! Hahahahaha!"

With a final glare of his face, he vanished. Rosa immediately contacted Talwyn. Surprisingly, she got through on the first attempt.

"Rosa! Did anything happen?"

"Nefarious is sending a couple of destroyers."

"How do you know that?"

"Nefarious said."

"Wait, you talked to Nefarious?"

"His assistant called me."

Talwyn was surprised that Nefarious would contact a seemingly low level target.

"I'm going to call off the destroyers. You need to get out of there, quickly. It's not worth a fight."

Just as Rosa was starting to descend from the ring of ignition, a familiar green ship approached, getting within one hundred feet.

"Cruiser vessel approaching. Danger level: Minimal. Armor: Medium. Shields: Low, no recharge. Weapons: Grade two blasters, two barrels." The information system alerted.

"Oh look, a spacefire! Can I join?" Captain Qwark insisted, making another epic return.

"Oh no. I'll take care of this." Talwyn said, knowing all too many times Qwark has been an inconvenience.

"Perfect timing Qwark. You need to leave."

"Why?"

"There are destroyers coming your way!"

"Never fear, Tal. I've survived endless waves of Blaargian battleships without taking a single scratch! They worship me!"

"Caution. Two destroyers approaching. Danger level: Low. Armor: High. Shields: Medium, no recharge. Weapons: One ship has a grade three piercing bullet, two barrel, the other a grade three shield ripper, single barrel. Confirmed class three custom fighters."

"You see, nothing to worry about! Low danger! This should be a piece of cake!"

"Qwark, your ship is much weaker than mine." Rosa declined. "You will be destroyed. They will drain shields, then use bullets to rip through the armor."

"No chance! … On the other hand, they look kind of _scary._ "

The destroyers were now well within visible range. They were completely coated with mostly gray and black. Spanning more than four of Rosa's ships across, these behemoths were more scary than strong. Nevertheless, small ships would be easily destroyed.

"Captain Qwark, we meet again. Prepare to die!" One of the brutal warriors taunted.

"We will never surrender, evil creature, thing. Prepare to have the flash..."

The pilot turns the ship, single barrel aimed directly toward him.

"Ahhhhhhh! I'm sorry! Everyone, back away slowly."

"Get away Captain Qwark! Rosa, protect him!" Talwyn urgently responded.

 _Vroom!_

One shield ripper cartridge was fired. It floated at a steady rate forward, slightly distorting visual space around it.

"Shield recovery drag detected."

The ripper wasn't strong enough to start shield destruction on Rosa's ship. Qwarks ship, a different story.

"Shields down on allied ship."

"Already?" Rosa exclaimed. That shield didn't even last five seconds! Of course, Qwark didn't even attempt to escape.

She made her way, slowly, to a point directly between the piercing bullet ship and Captain Qwark. They were stationary, head to head… er, nose to nose.

"The Captain has a bigger bounty on him. Kill him, then escape. It's not worth fighting the girl." One of the pilots explained, forgetting to kill the connection between him and Rosa.

"Agreed. Charging now."

Both destroyers surged forward. The one with the bullets swerved under the stronger ship, while the one that drains shields went straight, trying to ram Qwark.

"What kind of barbarians are they? Trying to ram ships..."Qwark reasoned, pulling forward just enough to dodge the initial charge. Rosa spun around.

"Grade four lasers activated."

"Qwark, can you just listen for once?"Talwyn stressed, sitting on a chair, flustered at the fake Captain.

"Fine. So much for a savior."

Qwark just begun increasing velocity when the ramming ship nicked him.

"Whooooooaaaa!"

His linear momentum was transferred to rotational, causing the ship to lose all stability. The opposite fighter launched five bullets into the engine of the ship causing the single thruster unit to fail. The distance between Rosa and the bullet master was linked by three beams of light yellow. They glowed like blue super-neon lights in a new building.

"Hey! Go away!"

Rosa tried to keep the lasers focused on the now swerving ship. See-sawing between her left and right, she kept her moves more reserved than his.

"Help me out here! I'm almost down!"

 _BANG!_

T-boned by the other fighter. The crash sounded like two cars being totaled. Being one-twentieth the weight of the "bigger brother", her vessel got smashed to the right, spinning slightly as it got ejected. Her heart dropped for a split second at the impact.

"Hit detected. Shields eighty-percent."

"Rosa! You okay?!" Talwyn yelled.

She did an 180, opening fire on the nuisance. He attempted another collision, this one clipping her and tilting her slightly.

"Arrg. She does not go down easy. Send a couple bullets her way."

For the third time, she locked on to him.

"I've got a small fleet heading your way. Stay your ground for a few minutes." Talwyn suggested.

She switched to explosive weapons, sending jolt after jolt of energy into the enemy. He sent another shield ripper before slamming into her again, this time head on.

 _BANG!_

Both fighters stuck together, being sent the direction of the heavier. All Talwyn could do was cringe. Rosa switched back to laser weapons, due to the threat of being in her own explosions. She did not let up.

Only a few more seconds were needed before a small fireball appeared on the bottom of the enemy ship.

"Enemy ship disabled."

"Hey, anyone? Celebrity hero in distress over here. No pressure, just a maniac trying to put holes in me!" Qwark yelled.

About fifteen shots were already lodged in the unprotected ship. It was Rosa's turn to charge at the destroyer. Hitting the main body would be useless. Nose pointed to the wing and lasers pointed to the body, she charged.

There was no bang. The hit instantly drained the remaining shield and tore half of the wing off. Impressively, the fighter managed spin slowly just for a couple seconds.

"Shields fifty percent." Rosa's ship reminded.

She fired her lasers a final time at the destroyed destroyer, knocking out the engines and the weapon system.

"Enemy ship disabled."

A wave of relief transmitted itself through her. She wasn't a very proficient pilot. She didn't have 'mad skills' that Ratchet had. It was the fact that 99% of ships were weaker than hers that she survived.

"Talwyn, they're both down."

"Thank goodness!" Talwyn said as she slowly got out of her chair.

"Great work people! We work well as a team!" Qwark cheered.

The last statement caused Rosa to look at Qwark's annihilated ship. Qwark is not even seeing the hole on the side of the cover!

"Uh Qwark, you should plug that hole, or put on O2 mask on. All of the air will escape."

"No way I'm wearing that ugly mask! I came here to look presentable!"

"Then plug the hole. The air compactor does not work as well without an engine running."

"Qwark… Willing to put fashion ahead of your life. This is why I worry." Talwyn scolded.

Qwark managed to plug the dime-sized hole with his thumb. Some air was still able to seep through, but at least he was able to breathe continuously.

"Talwyn, do you have any ship carriers coming?" Rosa asked.

"I have one coming. It can fit two ships. Is that enough?"

"There are three disabled out here. Two are the attackers. They are still alive from what I can tell."

"We don't need both. We can research one ship, and destroy the other, though we will detain both pilots. You're okay, right?"

"I am."

"Yello. Anyone there?" Qwark goofed impatiently.

"Patience Qwark. You will be helped soon." Talwyn responded.

"Better be. I'm already missing half of Lance and Janice. Stupid electronics don't work."

"Power button is to the right of the screen." Talwyn reminded for the fifth time.

"Right. Forgot about that. See ya!"

Talwyn sighed. Whatever.

"I see carriers and destroyers coming. Do you have any tether ships?"

Talwyn's eyes widened.

"I forgot about that! _Great!_ "

She sighed. "We'll do this the hard way."

Her ships pushed the disabled destroyers into the carrier, detaining the pilots, and then sending one out to be destroyed. After that was Qwark's ship. He reluctantly stepped out when asked, as Lance and Janice was not done yet.

As for the ships that surrounded Rosa to begin with, they destroyed themselves. When she drifted downward, the fire could flow freely across the circle in spots, causing overheating and explosion on opposite ships.

* * *

I'm gone June 25 to Mid July. Not a great chance that I will be within internet connection. I'll keep working though.

Chapter 5 is the longest yet, and the most adventurous.

Have a Qwarktastic day!


	5. A Powerless Establishment

Well, I would have had written more while I was gone, but high levels of smoke in the atmosphere caused me to become slightly sick.

Nonetheless, here it is (finally). This might be a make or break chapter. Hopefully I don't contradict anything massive with the main story (there are plenty of opportunities for it to happen here). However, I may put in stuff that are "barely possible" but not totally impossible.

My experience: Ratchet and Clank 1,2,3, ToD, QfB, AciT, Into the Nexus.

* * *

 **Chapter 5- A Powerless Establishment**

The whole Zoni deal put Ratchet and Clank in serious distress. The robot was hit significantly harder than the Lombax. While not quite to Sigmund's level of anxiety, Clank did stay away from his friend from time to time. So many questions filled his virtual brain.

All but a few Zoni are probably dead, but are they really? Is there a safe way out of this situation? How would other Zoni made robots be affected? How long would the universe survive, if it didn't collapse immediately after a failure of the Great Clock?

They have received no helpful information from Talwyn. Just a couple of status updates that left them at dead-ends. Definitely was going to be the most annoying adventure they've had, going nowhere fast. Talwyn had yet to talk to them about the space fight that almost destroyed Qwark.

 **Planet Juno**

Finally, their adventure was about to start. They received a word from the Polaris Defense Force head about a suspicious building on planet Juno. Ratchet had never been to Juno, but it wasn't hard to locate. It was just a couple hundred astronomical units away from Zanifar.

Juno was a planet with variety. Half of the equatorial region was tropical forest, half was arid (though not quite desert). While most of the middle latitudes were forest or plains, plateaus and mountains were scattered throughout. The poles were, as expected, chilly, but the north extreme was mountainous.

Luckily, this suspicious building was in one of the tropical areas. Ratchet landed exactly at the coordinates given, with only jungle surrounding him. It was warm. One of the warmest places he had encountered. Even though Lombaxes could withstand normally stressful temperatures, despite their fur, this 110 degree, humid day was quite exceptional.

"Talwyn would love it here." Ratchet pointed out to Clank, joking and panting slightly.

"Don't be so mean to miss Apogee." Clank said, scolding in a fairly lighthearted way.

"Well, you're no fun."

The jungle was extremely dense. Impossibly dense. It was so dense Clank could not walk easily. It was a miracle Ratchet could land the ship. There was only about an inch of extra space between two trees closest to it. If it weren't for the meager shields, the ship would have scratch scars abroad.

Sometimes the trees formed walls. Sometimes the trees formed trip hazards. Sometimes Ratchet just wanted to punch them. He sometimes had to climb up two to three feet to get past these tan towers that rivaled Dr. Nefarious in annoyance. To think he also had to get through the Junian prickles (thistle-like plants)...

"Where is it?" Ratchet asked with annoyance after tackling the obstacle course for slightly less than half a mile.

"Talwyn said it was within a half mile of the coordinate point."

"We're here already. Must have went the wrong way." Ratchet sighed rather impatiently.

The last thing he wanted to do is struggle through a half mile radius circle. Traveling counterclockwise, he had to do more of the same, tedious work. He almost found it easier climbing on the thick, tangled branches just a few of his heights above, before dropping back down.

"Ow! What the!" Ratchet exclaimed in pain.

Something small bit him. He immediately kicked it, sending it into a tree and killing it.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Ratchet reassured as he hopped toward the thing he killed.

Tetramite.

"Yeah, were going back on the branches."

He was only able to use three of his limbs properly. Still, he managed to get himself from branch to branch smoothly.

* * *

Not too much later, he came across a hedge-like wall of lighter bushes coming up like weaves in a quilt though the mess of smaller branches. With eyes closed and a sneeze, he came though the disappointingly thin layer. He opened his disproportionally large eyes afterward.

That was unexpected! There was a castle! Wasn't small either. Mostly, it was all one building. There were half tall defense buildings surrounding, with a few clearly seen tower-based weapons. The castle was mostly made of marble, but gold lined every edge.

Longer length than width defined the main monstrosity. It seemed to have at least several, if not about a dozen levels in it. The unexpected building had serious support. Vertical reinforcement beams jutted out of the solid sides. There were three towers, one in front, one bigger tower in the middle, and one in the back. Covering the towers were cone-like roofs. Each cone had an assortment of gems circling the bottom. It almost made no sense. It all seemed intimidating, but at the same time, it seemed ridiculous.

"Clank, get off. You need to see this." Ratchet commanded, eyes wide open.

Clank, seeing the powerful sight to behold, had a similar reaction.

"I...don't understand. Why would someone build a castle here?"

It almost seemed like this powerhouse was built in secret. Trees and shrubs covered the remaining area of this territory. While not as heavy as the shrubbery Ratchet just got through, it was developing well.

Who would build a castle like this? Who is still alive? Qwark is not evil anymore. Nefarious, not really his style. Vendra is in jail. How did this stay a secret?

Squinting and scanning around, the fur ball saw no activity.

"Ready to crash the party?"

"You aren't seriously going to intrude the castle are you?"

"Come on. We're just paying them a visit."

" _Why do I even work with him?"_ Clank thought to himself, surrendering to recklessness once again.

They executed some form of stealth through the juvenile trees. From above, one could only see flashes of yellow as they moved fairly swiftly through the bright green garden. Navigating to the apparent opening to the left, there were very few exposed areas where the now visible cameras could track them.

"Foreign life form detected. Scanning..."

"Ratchet, I suggest you turn back now." Clank suggested.

"Not a chance."

"Scan failed. Trespasser, turn back now. Failure will result in execution. All troops have been notified."

Usually, this would result in at least six different projectile weapons being aimed at the violator. A conundrum of confusion entered the mechanical Zoni's head. There was no click of a sniper. There was no rotation of a turret. There were no thugs yelling ridiculous, taunting lines.

"Looks like they're on vacation. This will be easy." Ratchet concluded.

"I'm leaving..."

"And miss the adventure?"

Clank sighed. "There is no hope for him."

Ratchet carelessly rushed out to the slightly intimidating front. This castle even had a drawbridge! There was no river flowing around the dictatorial building. Metal substituted wood, and it seemed of fairly high quality. Above, Tachyon's gold symbol emanated through the black circular frame like a chocolate cereal piece floating on top of milk.

" _Tachyon's_ Castle?!" Clank exclaimed, noticing the piece of identification before Ratchet.

"Wow. This is really odd." Ratchet agreed implicitly.

Always wanting the short but hard way, the Lombax climbed to the top of the extremely massive door. He attempted to pry it open using his whole body, surprising himself when it actually did.

"Come on pal." Ratchet stated to the somewhat lagging Clank.

The robot couldn't use his thrusters, but was more than capable with his heli-pack. Using the lifting blades to ascend the barrier made Ratchet look like a chump. Clank was the first to hop in, quickly followed by his partner. The first went down smoothly while the mechanic misjudged the height somewhat, landing very imperfectly.

Grabbing his ankles at the moderate stinging pain he was beginning to endure, he peered around. It was vacant. Abandoned. Must have let it go when he defeated the tyrant.

"You okay?" Clank asked, holding a hand out.

"Thanks." Ratchet complimented after being pulled up by Clank.

" _This place is huge."_ The Lombax wondered.

Ratchet wasn't quite sure what this titanic room was supposed to be. There seemed to be rooms hidden behind rows of posts to each side. The brutal artwork-coated ceiling dropped from thirty feet in the middle to about six where the posts stood. All of the stands were coated with gold. In the middle was a fountain with a large statue of Tachyon inside two circles of working water jets. There was a small flower area containing a statue of another apparent tyrant, located directly in the background of the main monster. Other minor glorifications were scattered about.

He took a couple of steps forward…

"Greetings! You are the first people to stop by in two years. I am tour guide 449, and I will be guiding you through a small portion of this great building. Pick me up to get started."

…

"Why is there a museum in Tachyon's castle?" Ratchet asked Clank. This was quickly becoming more strange than the tour on planet Igliak.

"Perhaps to boast." Clank reasoned.

"Yeah, probably. Sounds like something he would do."

Ratchet walked over to the small counter by the right corner and balanced the tour guide on his Omiwrench.

"Before we begin, there are a couple rules to go over. Number one, you must stay within bounds of the tour. If you stray, a warning will be sounded. If you continue, you may be executed. Number two, you must not touch anything that is not to be touched. There is 100,000 volts and 400 amps flowing through most objects, just in case you get too curious. Number three, you must not denounce Tachyon or anything made through him. You probably know the consequence for that. Number four, Tachyon appreciation day is every Friday. This week, he asks for a slice of super sweet cake. By asks, he implies forced cooperation."

"Don't even think about breaking any of the rules." Clank scowled.

It was too early to have Ratchet waste his life by taking an incompetent risk.

"Tachyon isn't even alive anymore. What is there to worry about? Except the electricity."

"Oh dear! It seems as though nothing was updated for the last four years. Some information may be inaccurate. Apologies in advance."

"Who would even go here for a tour?" Ratchet skepticized.

Clanks head calculated.

"Perhaps you should ask the people forced into his arena."

"You would mean that there is a prison in here, right?"

"It's a possibility."

"Well, can't be a castle without a prison. Doubt anyone is in there now."

"Our first stop is the fountain of Tachyon. Head there for explanation." The info bot interrupted.

Looking for any other interesting monuments out in the open, Ratchet glanced to and fro while strolling toward the fountain, easily enduring the steady pain in both ankles.

"This is the Fountain of Tachyon. One of the things Tachyon always wished for in his castle was a fountain of youth. However there was a slight problem. It didn't exist. So, he took some water, poured some nanotech inside, and said, 'good enough'. The statue is one of very few objects in the castle made from solid gold, as opposed to merely being coated with it, in case that interests anyone."

"Wait, why didn't Tachyon put his castle on planet Reepor? You know where the Cragmites always lived?" Ratchet initiated another question.

"The planet is barely livable to most organic life forms. They would need O2 masks to survive for more than a few hours."

"Surely, the building would have air regulators, wouldn't it?"

"Also, Reepor is quite distant from all other planets."

"Right." Ratchet realized that this was an efficiency issue, one of the few that Tachyon actually addressed.

He took off his gloves and set his soft paws in the energized water. The Nanotech was weak, but still he could feel the slight vibration starting from his hands and transmitting to his ankles. Ratchet sighed with relief. Except for the bite on his right foot, he could feel no pain. For the first time in twenty minutes he could run!

They immediately went to the first room on the right. There were a bunch of maps. Big maps, small maps. Paper maps, electronic maps.

"This is the map room. Did you get lost? If so, these maps are of no help. Instead, they offer a detailed look of the entire galaxy, right down to the very city for electronic versions. Info on Rykan V and Sargasso still unavailable. As a guest, you get a free paper copy, in case you ever leave...or break out. Only one per person."

Ratchet walked somewhat curiously to a plotter machine in the center.

"Hmm. This thing works." Ratchet concluded as he started messing with the meter high detailed tabletop plotting system. "Not bad."

"We must remind you that you are not to touch objects. Discipline will be dealt if you get caught."

"Ratchet, hurry up." Clank stated across the hallway.

"Are we in _that_ much of a rush?" Ratchet asked, knowing they were not _that_ pressed for time.

They decided to take a rather unusual path through the main floor. Instead of traveling up and down the rows, they traveled in an S shape. Both had a feeling that the best stuff lie at the far end.

Encountering their next area of randomness the duo found...escape pods. Only three of them. The rest of the room was empty.

"This is the escape pod room. Sometimes, even noble dictators need a desperate getaway when things get ugly. What you see in front of you are three pods Tachyon was considering. From left to right: The Grummel-Net ET4, the Grummel-Net EW1, and the Gadgetron Escape Launcher. Tachyon was just about to buy the third one when it was recalled. Apparently, when one played the built in family game S _uper_ _S_ _pace_ _S_ _quash_ _W_ _ars_ , the score you got turned into the speed you traveled, in mach, toward your last origin point. You could try again in an attempt to lower the speed, but people realized they could not get a score of less than 500. Tachyon then went for the EW1, for its basic warping capabilities. Oh my, it seems the punishing electricity generator is down. Don't you dare touch anything though."

Clank was the first one to break the rule this time. He did an outside search and scanned all three of them. Ratchet did a more casual search.

"Tachyon chose poorly. The Grummel-Net ET4 would be the best, overall." Clank pointed out, noting the impressive turbo charger.

"Wonder how he came up with that decision. That one should have been a no brain-er." Ratchet agreed.

 _Click._

The doors to all three pods opened on Clank's command. The interior to all three was about average. The escape launcher did have a VGA 9b80- video game system, as hinted by the recall notice given. Overall, the ET4 was the best, with wood furniture of various kinds, overall making a roomy atmosphere.

"This seems like a vulnerability." Clank said, a little startled he needed only the basic "open" command to expose the core.

After they lost interest quickly, they went on to the third room. It was certainly one of the more unexpected rooms in the tour. Contained was a near-exact replica of an Obsidian Eye. Around it was a few minor Zoni artifacts. Disturbingly, there were a few metallic remnants of Zoni in randomized locations. On the walls were a few random Zoni drawings, done very quickly. Clearly, Tachyon did not view decoration as a must.

"Tachyon was after the Great Clock, too?" Clank gasped.

"This is the Obsidian Eye research room. After taking the Krell Canyon on Planet Lumos, Tachyon was astonished when transfixed with this foreign piece of equipment. After two weeks of research and attempted optimization, he gave the go ahead for a test. An unknown location appeared for a mere two seconds before the fulcrum star shattered. The now aggravated emperor ordered the rebuild of this vital part. He eventually aborted the research after hyper gluing the star pieces together. As it was later found out, the pieces do automatically fuse together. Just very slowly. They estimate two years for this process to adequately complete. As for the location, nothing more than the visual was provided, and they only remembered seeing blue."

"Oh boy. Time for the what if questions." Ratchet anticipated.

"Imagine if Tachyon would have tried taking the Great Clock." Clank sulked, having enough nightmares about Nefarious taking it. "He probably wouldn't find it but..."

"Why are you worrying? It's not like Tachyon is going to rise from the dead of anything." Ratchet reassured.

"You jinxed it."

"Hahaha. I'm sure I did." Ratchet laughed slightly nervously, having the expectation that anything could happen.

Expecting more randomness to be hurled their way, they navigated across the hall to the fourth room. A familiar enemy showed itself. The Enforcer. There were four of them lined up. Upgrades seemed to be the only difference between them.

"Brings back memories, doesn't it?" Ratchet reminisced.

"Nostalgia." Clank remarked sarcastically.

"This is the enforcer room. Besides Tachyon himself and his commanders, these stained the most fear into civilians and galactic rangers alike. All of these displayed are replicas. The first one in the line, the standard enforcer, was already too much for most life. The second one is the armored enforcer. With a heavy plate of armor, you most likely needed a ship to bring this down. Third would be the raritainium infused enforcer. With upgraded weaponry and extremely high resistance, evacuation was the only option when these were in sight. The fourth, was perhaps the strongest land weapon in all of the universe. Heavily infused with raritanium, and installed with a 50,000 point shield with recharge capability, these were invincible. Or so Tachyon thought… More information later in the tour. A word of caution, the tour gets more serious soon."

"Wait a second. There was a stronger one we never fought?" Ratchet realized urgently.

"Apparently. Good thing they were taken down. But by what?"

With nothing spectacular to look at, they headed for the adjacent display. Unexpectedly, the unspectacularness of the last room was surpassed. There was a model dimensionator on a rudimentary head shaped object. Around was a few pictures of dimensionator pictures and plans. Well, it was boring until they listened.

"This is the demensionator room. It should be obvious that this instrument of Cragmite and Lombax ejection was also a goal for Tachyon to possess. However, after the dramatic exit, it was hurried away quietly. It is still being investigated, along with the location, but empirical authorities have ruled out Fastoon and Cobalia. It has been rumored that the ultimate goal is to bring back the Cragmites _and the Lombaxes_ for a fight to extinction. Don't tell Tachyon I said that."

Ratchet was left speechless. Simply ejecting them wasn't enough? Clearly, Tachyon was hell-bent on watching every one of them suffer. He clenched his fist in effect of his new-found reason to hate Tachyon.

"That little twerp got all that he deserved." Ratchet spat out.

"So you saved the Lombaxes after all." Clank encouraged, changing the tune.

This made the spared Lombax a little bit more calm. All of this Lombax ejection depression was taking a slow but long toll on Ratchet. For some reason, he knew he probably will never find them. This isolation was downright serious compared to the day and three hours required for Qwark to be alone.

"Let's just continue." Ratchet sped, trying to ignore what he heard.

Each progressive room became increasing hits to Ratchet's gut. Figuratively, of course. There were no fists loaded into the walls. A bunch of warp devices greeted the duo in the sixth room out of eight.

"This is the warp room. No, the room itself doesn't warp. That would be a fatal vulnerability. Rather, a generous assortment of authentic warp creations are presented. First, we have warp pads. These moderately priced teleporters are great for short distance escape maneuvers. Next, we have a Grav-o-metric warp drive. Generally found in starships, these warp drives can send you to the nearest galaxy adjacent from you. Not good for escape though. You need plenty of speed and a little patience for this to kick in. To the right, we have the inductive warp drive. MUCH more expensive, and for similar warping distances, these can activate somewhat sooner, but they need massively less speed. There are only drafts available, but the semi-maxim drive is being developed. Specs are not available, but staring price is a mere 25,000,000 bolts, in case any of you are eccentric billionaires. Lastly, we have the warp bands. Tachyon always wanted to get his hands on these, but Grummel-Net did not allow the purchase for obvious reasons. Tachyon ended up researching and building three of them. One is on display here. One is in Tachyon's possession. The third was sold to an unknown purchaser. They operate similarly to the Grav-o-metric warp drives, but are for personal use and one-use only, as they burn out after. They were discontinued due to inefficiency and instability."

Ratchet had his eyes peeled to those bands.

"Only electric current protects the devices. One life form could knock them down while the next activated it. Escape would be easy." Clank logically thought out.

"Would I need these or not?" Ratchet questioned, somewhat ignoring Clank.

"If you're interested in recent history, the last two rooms will spike your attention." the tour guide informed.

They headed straight away to the adjacent seventh room, leaving the warp bands behind. In it, scenes from planet Fastoon. The wall to the left had a mural of an overpowered Tachyon army utterly destroying the outskirts of the now Lombax ruins. Straight ahead was a mural of the few Lombaxes defending against the charge. A few could be seen downed, motionless. Cannon barrels pointed directly at the others. Many were seen running away at all angles. The mural to the right was not very distinguishable. Only a bright flash pierced brighter than their summer sun.

"This is the most epic victory room. it's tough for most people to look at, but Tachyon laughed every time. This victory was of course the Lombaxes fall. It didn't take long to overrun the Lombaxes. Out prepared and out numbered, all they could do was slow the advance. His troops stopped when the Lombaxes negotiated terms of surrender. Tachyon accepted the Lombaxes ejection into the other dimension, and the future was set. It almost seemed too simple.

Battle stats. Robot casualties not included. Note: there may have been a couple prisoners taken. No confirmation. Tachyon first, Lombaxes second. Troops: 5000, 4000. Casualties: 50, 800. Weapons used. Tachyon: Enforcers, mark 1 and 3. Other standard robotic units. Lombaxes: Plasma Cannons. Plasma striker. Negotiator. Other small weapons."

"Tachyon must like rubbing it in." Ratchet sulked. "I hope he knows they will never be destroyed."

"I hope we find them sometime." Clank hoped.

"Hopefully soon. I'm tired of waiting."

After looking around at the dismal souvenirs, the finally made it to the end. Of this section, at least. It was here they found something strangely familiar.

"Megacorp Headquarters?" Clank questioned with an increasing voice.

"Why is _that_ here?" Ratchet concurred.

In the middle was a model of the huge base. It was situated on a meter by meter table, stretching about two meters high. Only one mural was provided in the back. The mass of Tachyon fighters were shown as powerful as giant Abominable Snagglebeasts, yet secretive and sneaky as Tetramites around a blind corner.

"This is the only display critical of Tachyons operations. The worst loss room. Having received a six week warning before the attack, Megacorp stockpiled a massive supply of anti-robotic weapons. When troops charged the base, they were destroyed almost instantly by the bombardment. They never made it into the building. Disgraced by the total defeat, Tachyon left the galaxy immediately. There were rumors going around that there was another Lombax in the Solana galaxy. He will make sure there is no warning before that attack."

Battle stats. Tachyon first, Megacorp second. Troops: 2000, 150. Casualties: 1700, 4."

"Well, that Lombax was me. And why did Angela leave the galaxy if they were well prepared?"

"How would she know? The attack hadn't happened yet, and if the opposite occurred, she would have died there."

Ratchet thought a second.

"Wait a second. Why didn't they search on her home planet?"

"How do you know that?"

"Unless they checked on Grelbin before they attacked..."

"Perhaps they didn't know." Clank tried to explain, not even sure if Ratchet was right in the first place.

"The tour continues through the hallway. I will be ready anytime you're ready."

It didn't take long for them to progress forward. They were greeted by a long hallway spanning the entire length of the building. They went down to the elevator past the fourth room on the right.

"Down this way. We are going to the basement for the remainder of the tour. There are four more exhibits to explore."

The elevators were quite fast. Ratchet almost felt as of he was completely weightless. The basement was only one level down, so the trip was only a few seconds. There was an initial dark hallway before the first attraction directly to the right.

"To your right you have the castle arena. If the light is green, you may enter."

Green as it always was since the castle was seemingly abandoned.

"Uh, Ratchet. There's no chance we'd be forced into a battle, right?" Clank cautioned.

"Nope. No chance." Ratchet responded, wasting no time in looking around.

Medium sized, it had a bunch of spaces for brutal hazards. It didn't seem large enough for an epic boss fight, however. There was no unbearably deadly liquid in the pit around the fighting platform. Anyone would know that it didn't remain unused in battle. Cushioned stands surrounded the circular stage, holding up to about 150 evil lifeforms in total.

"This is one of two arenas Tachyon constructed. The other, in planet Murkow, was much more used and had more capable battles. This arena had a basic selection of normal battles, timed battles, and hazard matches. Do you have the skills required to take down an enforcer? Play Enforcer Eradication, available anytime. Or do you want to try a beta version of a new stage, Rescue? In this mission, two prisoners are locked in cages hung two feet above ground. To win, you must free the prisoners while continuously being attacked by Tachyon approved prison armies. Hint. You might want to practice, because the first prisoners might be _Lombaxes_. Assuming they are forcefully returned soon. Please don't tell Tachyon about this, either."

"Maybe the Lombaxes are better off in the other dimension. Considering what would have happened." Ratchet gloomed. He didn't want to think about this anymore.

"Tachyon was much more evil than I could ever imagine. Kicking an entire species when they are down."

"Ready for the last rooms?" the tour guide asked.

"Are they even worse than what we've seen?" The Lombax asked politely.

"Much worse."

"Great." Ratchet sighed. An uncomfortable sensation filled him like someone dumping a bucket full of small pins at least twice his height above ground.

The room had a dark overtone. The colors were dim, and the lighting was faint. There were many statues lined up along the wall. All of them were life sized. He knew what was coming when structures similar in height caught his attention.

"This is the domination room. Tachyon really prized his overthrows, and wants to show how much he has accomplished. The statues you see close by are the 'Obliteration Sector', defined as the extermination of 98% or more of a species. Over in the distance, there is the 'Decimation Sector', defined by a 50% reduction in population, in contrast of the correct-by-definition 90% reduction. It only has highlights, as the number of species identified by the definition is massive. There are other miscellaneous facts throughout. Go near a site to get more info."

"Thief, murderer, liar. I would have taken him before Drek if I knew."

"Rat…" Clank began to say, interrupted by the tour bot again.

"Fourteen intelligent species were at one point considered 'Obliterated'. In order from most devastated to least. Ratuns, Extinct. Pobiyls, Extinct. Oporals, Extinct. Kiques, Extinct. Wenterns, Extinct. Poorodotos, Extinct. Lombaxes, 30% killed, all others dimensionated. Truns, 99 to 100% killed. Ceils, 99% killed. Ylows, 99% killed. Unigds, 99% killed. Corxes, 98.5% killed. Sasels, 98% killed. Seafeals, 98%. Azorts, 98%."

The first thing Ratchet did was to slowly walk over to the Lombax statue.

"The Lombaxes. Smaller than average, average indestructibility, much higher than average intelligence. Tachyon swore revenge on them the day he realized they demensionated his race. Like flies did they fall. Little do they know, they will be coming back, sometime..."

"Should we tell him that Tachyon is dead?" Ratchet asked Clank.

"Hmm… Tachyon is dead? Will confirm and update." The tour bot interrupted.

Only the Markazian statue was the other interest of Ratchet.

"The Markazians. Slightly smaller than average, average indestructibility, higher than average intelligence. 70% killed. Having helped the Lombaxes for a long time, Tachyon was forced into a fight with them. Every Markazian was killed on Fastoon. Tachyon attacked their home world, destroying everything in their wake. Some survived the rubble, while a few more escaped. The Markazians are known for getting back up very quickly, and built their next settlement in a matter of weeks. The have grown significantly since, though their numbers are still somewhat reduced."

"Significantly is an understatement." Clank commented.

"I'm sure Talwyn knows about this, even though she didn't tell me about that."

Ratchet followed Clank to other statues of interest.

"The Agorians. Larger than average. More indestructible than average. Less intelligent than average. 60% killed. The Agorians were neutral until Tachyon overtook the Agorian Battelplex. Infuriated, they launched a full scale attack at charge squad base five. Having mounds of strength, but lacking strategy, the attackers were decimated. Tachyon retaliated, killing masses in Lumos. Many more were imprisoned."

"The Fongoids. Smaller than average. More vulnerable than average. Slightly less intelligent than average. 50% killed. Out of five inhabited Fongoid planets, Tachyon chose Torren IV and Quantos and completely ran them over. An unprovoked attack that wiped nearly every village off of those planets. There were no prisoners taken."

"The desperation..." Ratchet said in a very concerned voice.

"How many people did he kill?" Clank wondered, astonished. "Surely they would have a place with that information."

Ratchet navigated over to the "Collateral Damage" display. It was a thin screen with lots of battle stats.

"This is the Collateral Damage display. Fun fact; this occupation involved more species than the Great War. Even more fun, er… factual, no species suffered less than a one percent loss. Look at the numbers for more."

"1.1 _trillion_ killed. 85 _million_ taken prisoner. One planet destroyed. Longest battle: 4 days. Largest battle: 720,000 troops combined."Clank read out loud.

"And seven entities to take it down." Ratchet stated, causing Clank to stop.

They weren't in a hurry, but they wanted to take it in as much as possible as fast as possible, in case they were sent elsewhere. There was a short, dreary hallway connecting the next two rooms.

"He said much worse didn't he?" Ratchet clarified in a question. "That room wasn't quite _much_ worse."

"I believe I heard that as well. Do you want me to go first?"

"Doesn't matter."

Clank bolted ahead of Ratchet, only to skid to a stop when a snippet of the next room caught his eye.

"Ratchet. Lombax stuff. Literally." Clank said with a strangely surprised voice.

Ratchet ran toward the room as quickly as possible, but shock stopped him as soon as he made it two strides in.

"Oh Jeez!" Ratchet blurted as he shot backward, almost tripping.

The jumped life form stabilized himself in shock. He made his way, slowly, to the nearest object and glided his hand toward it. As soon as he touched his furry tips, he recoiled, regretting the decision touching…

...the Lombax skeleton. It wasn't the only one. Ratchet counted twenty-one. He had to sit down to gain composure.

"This is the most hated room. We all know by now the most hated race is the Lombaxes. But the most hated Lombaxes? The Cross family. Most of them were rebels, and tried to organize resistance as Tachyon was building up strength. It was ultimately unsuccessful. Only a small group joined their ranks, the vast majority of the Lombaxes didn't care. Tachyon made a pledge to completely dismantle them. When the Lombaxes got ready to dimensionate, Tachyon sacrificed troops to run in and kill only them. In total, there were twenty-four in the family. As you can see, three are missing. Angela Cross's location and status are unknown. Mosul Cross, the leader of the resistance, was vaporized in an explosion. Claire Cross was believed to have escaped with the Lombaxes at first, but there were reports of her getting kidnapped. There is no confirmation, and any searches have been terminated."

"Poor Angela. She probably already knows, if she's sill alive." Clank compassionately cared. "Are you alright, Ratchet?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just give me a minute." Ratchet said with an unconvincing tone. "It makes it worse when three of them seem over 70 years old and five of them under five years old."

Clank checked again. He found the smallest one. It was so small Clank could hold it within both of his small hands! Lombaxes that small are less than a month old.

"Not positive if I can take a couple of years without Lombaxes, especially if they keep showing up dead like this." _sigh_ _"_ It's a different kind of lonely, worse than any other."

Clank reached out his hand again to help his friend up.

"I'm fine." Ratchet responded as he got up. "Maybe well find something better up ahead."

Clank slumped as Ratchet strolled slower than usual toward the final room of the tour.

It was a simple room. Usual walls, usual floor. Only a few statues lined the middle. Most of these sculptures were people Ratchet had met before.

"This is the most wanted room. There have been many lifeforms that committed an infraction against Tachyon and had gotten away with it. These are the stand out ones, whose crimes range from ridiculous to severe. On your right you have Skid McMarx, as a robot. He has been placed on this list because of taunting Tachyon with excessively repetitive and annoying lines. He has recently been captured."

"How did Skid get in contact with Tachyon?" Ratchet wondered.

"Don't- … Oh dear." Clank exclaimed, looking at Captain Qwark. "What did he do this time?"

"Next you have Captain Qwark. His was placed here based on many minor offenses. He continuously taunted Tachyon with phrases like: "You won't stand a chance, skull face! Take that, six legs! and a few yo mama jokes. He also brought Skid McMarx into his unique methods of protest. Bounty: 5,000 bolts."

"Never seems to disappoint, doesn't he?" Ratchet joked. "But why did he have to bring Skid?"

"To the left of him, you have Slim Cognito. He was responsible for selling unapproved weapons to unauthorized civilians across the galaxy. Some of these weapons were later used against Tachyon troops. Bounty was 75,000 bolts, before he got sent to Zordoom."

"Max Apogee. Lead explorer and general nuisance to Tachyon. He was responsible for multiple obstructions, helping Lombaxes, and, just recently, responsible for a prison break. He is potentially dangerous. Bounty: 1,000,000 bolts."

"Wasn't he the victim of space pirates?" Clank questioned.

"Maybe. Maybe it happened just a slightly different way than everyone said.

Who knows these days?"

"And, finally, Angela Cross. Many, many severe infractions. She is responsible for the destruction of both mark four Enforcers, using Omega Bypass Bombs to achieve this feat. She is responsible for the attempted assassination of Tachyon, and the assassination of Humo, Tachyon's right hand man. There were several instances of property destruction, which totaled about several hundred million bolts. Traitorous actions, secretly helping any race against Tachyon. Spying. Taunting. Impersonating a Tachyon troop. Finally, one prison break. Careful (usually), but very aggressive. Extremely dangerous, as dangerous as Mr. Rash Brigade. Bounty 15,000,000 bolts. Wanted dead."

"Geez, that got to be the number one bounty in history!" Ratchet shouted.

Clank was shocked. How did _none_ of her actions become public? This was way more sabotage than the Protopet business!

"Who is Rash Brigade?" Clank asked without a clue.

"I know as much as you do."

There was a 'press here' labeled button, flashing red, just in front of the statue. Ratchet pressed the compressible switch. The theme music for galactic news played.

"Hello. This is Kip Darling, and this is _severe_ breaking news. There has been a shooting on planet Terachnos that has left head assistant Humo Gee Wemt dead. It involves an unknown assailant, Humo and a few various troops. The shooter has since escaped. No further information is available. To repeat, the head assistant Humo Gee Wemt has been killed in a spontaneous shooting. We will get more info to you a soon as it becomes available."

"Out of all this, no one knew Angela was behind this?" Clank asked.

"To be fair, we didn't know about any of this until now." Ratchet responded.

Clank thought for a moment.

"Angela left the Bogon galaxy because she was in danger. Why would she want to put herself in danger when she just escaped from it?"

"Danger without hope versus dangerous but possible. She's not the type to walk in a battle with thousands of troops. Protopets? She did not just hide in a corner the entire time."

"Right."

"This concludes the tour. A staff member will be here shortly to escort you to prison. Resistance will get you killed. The book 'Captain Qwark: The greatest disgrace to Captains abroad.' is a complementary gift from Tachyon to you. Pick one up today."

"Don't you dare." Clank scolded.

"I won't. How long until someone comes?" Ratchet shifted his attention to the tour bot.

"Scanning… There are approximately zero members in this castle. Approximate time will be about infinity."

"Thanks. Plenty of time to explore. Come on, Clank."

"Where are we going?"

"Well, castles always have a prison, don't they?" Ratchet contradicted, after just being skeptical about a prison in the establishment.

"You expect to find anything there? Everybody's gone or everyone's a skeleton."

"Worth a trip."

Ratchet set the bot down and left the tiny room, Clank on his back. They got to the elevator when they spotted a problem. Next to all of the buttons was a slot for an id card. Ratchet knew he would not be going far without one. Therefore, they went to the only other floor available. Ratchet spent some time thinking how he could get it.

"Ah-ha! I know how."

"Hopefully your strategy is better than breaking down doors." Clank stated, considering Qwark's strategy to a problem.

"Warp pad. There's one in the warp room. We'll use it to go through the doors. Hopefully, it's the right kind."

"Holo-call from Apogee, Talwyn." The Holo-call unit alerted.

"Ratchet?"

"Hey Tal. What's going on?"

"Did you check the building yet? Forgot to tell you that it was really large."

"It's a little more than large. We're still searching it."

Ratchet arrived at the warp room, heading straight towards the warp pad. As soon as he obtained it, he went directly out. Talwyn got a glimpse of the room and got suspicious.

"Where are you exactly?"

"In the warp room."

"In what building?" Talwyn finally pressed.

"Tachyon's Castle."

Talwyn was not ready for that at all. Her initial reaction was a strange look, like Ratchet was was messing with her. Looking at the background, she realized that he wasn't kidding.

"The castle is more aesthetic than operational. A result of Tachyon's ego." Clank concluded.

"Sooo...how did this stay a secret?" Talwyn ejected in a shocked and skeptical tone.

"Every person that entered was either a worker for Tachyon or a prisoner. There aren't many life forms on this planet, so they probably didn't get caught." Clank chimed in again. "Don't worry Talwyn, there is no one here."

For once, she wasn't that worried. Talwyn then changed the subject.

"Ratchet, I know who is killing all of the Zoni. I was in contact with someone that got attacked twice by Nefarious troops. They were apparently looting the Lombax ruins at last check."

"Nefarious. Why am I not surprised?"

"What does he want this time?" Clank jumped in.

"Don't know for sure yet. That one girl has our only info. Probably some sort of galactic domination?"

"He has realized that his goals are getting less and less successful, hasn't he?" Ratchet pointed out.

"I wouldn't call victory yet. I think exterminating the Zoni would remove any protections you have had. The reason this was kept in secret was probably because Zoni do not call for help with other races."

 _Beep! Beep!_

"What are you doing Ratchet?" Talwyn wondered.

"Using a warp pad. Were trying to find an id card."

"Why do you need another id?"

"To go to prison."

"Uh, huh." Talwyn stated. "There's a prison in this?"

 _Beep! Beep!_

"Drat. Still not far enough..." Ratchet flustered.

"It is two floors down." Clank alerted.

"How do you know that?" Ratchet countered.

"I thought you looked at the map in the previous room."

 _Zzzzt_!

Ratchet finally got the adequate distance needed to initiate the teleport. He ended up in a security room. There were lots of papers and lots of pictures of the dear leader, but no identification. Using the reverse button, he went to the place just before he teleported.

"What's in the prison anyway?" Talwyn asked.

"Probably nothing, but Ratchet still insists." Clank responded.

"I see. Another disappointment from Ratchet."

"Hey!"

"Just kidding!"

* * *

It took several trips with the Warp Pad (and many failed attempts) before they found the office rooms. If there was one fault of Tachyon it was inefficient choices for location, although they had extremely minor effect. Seven offices later, no id.

They were quite a ways down the hall, and annoyance started to display on Ratchet's face.

"Please tell me that you found at least _one_ interesting thing in here." Talwyn stressed.

"Oh, we found a few."

"Okay, what?"

"Well, there were enforcers even stronger than the ones we fought."

"And… There has to be something better than that. Though I have heard about those blasted things..."

"Angela had her share of fun in this galaxy."

"Define fun." Talwyn interrogated, knowing the basics of who she was through her conversations over the years.

"Similar to Alister Azumith. Except less reckless and selfish."

"And what is left of Alister without those two traits?" Clank caught a weakness in his argument. He knew he was talking about his actions _before_ his sacrifice.

"Uh, rebel." Ratchet replied, knowing he could have stated another comparison with more success.

"So, what would be the difference between you and Angela be, besides gender?" Talwyn pushed, trying to prevent a smart comment by Ratchet.

"How many actions of Angela's did you hear in the news? Now how 'bout I tell you that she almost did as much damage as I did?"

"You're saying that she did not hide the entire time."

"She almost killed Tachyon! Imagine what would have changed if _she_ was the one that killed him."

Talywn was a little shocked by that shocker.

"Oh!...Why did no one know about this?"

"It would have been a disgrace for Tachyon to share that." Clank chipped in again.

"So who killed the assistant?" Talwyn continued, having heard of that story.

"Angela." Ratchet nearly repeated.

"If you're right, we need to get investigators there immediately! This is extremely valuable information. How long will you guys be here?"

"Just long enough to head to the prison. They will need an id card to get into most rooms. Like this one." Ratchet informed, picking up the small, newly found, plastic rectangle. "No more than a half hour."

* * *

Ratchet searched the lower floor meticulously for prison-like doors. Darkness concealed most vision. Other than that, everything was metal in this bland passageway. He forgot to bring his trusty light ray bot, which make the search more of a blind one than anything.

Ratchet held his breath. He hadn't told Talwyn about her father yet. This could backfire badly if Max is still in there. Squinting and using his hands for focus, he eventually found the sign that said "Minor Prison Delta". Surprisingly, the id card for an office worked for the prison, too. The doors were not automatic; Ratchet had to swing the slightly squeaking entrance blockers open.

Oddly, the actual holding cell area had more lighting than the pathway leading up to it. There seemed to be only one level, but it had about 300 cells. So much prison space, but so little sound. No sound at all. As Ratchet walked past several rows, he let go of his breath. There were no prisoners so far, and there was no foul stench signature of dead victims.

"Why were you holding your breath, Ratchet?" Clank questioned.

"Oh, nothing." He lied.

Clank got off of Ratchet, keeping up with him, checking to the left and right of him as empty cells flew by. On row 91, or something close to that, Clank saw a suspicious piece of paper near the side to the void cell on the left. Ratchet was temporarily oblivious to the departure of his wing man, continuing on to the very end without yield. Talwyn, meanwhile, was close by to her communication unit, but not quite into screen view. Multitasking.

After reading the short note, Clank started bolting toward Ratchet.

"Ratchet!" Clank's voice echoed through the man made cave.

"What did you find?" Ratchet said, still off in the distance.

"A note."

The mechanic walked back to the robot less than robot ran to the mechanic. Ratchet fidgeted with the note, finding a proper grip once it got into his dominant hand.

 _Hello whomsoever may read this._

 _I was going to take back a piece of equipment in Ardolis when Tachyon troops captured me and brought me to the prison I stay now. I can't tell you the exact location, but I am in planet Juno. The food portions are meager. It's very hot. But I am fine for now._

 _If you are an outsider, please get the message out to Talwyn, and then anyone who can get me out. Until then, everyone will assume I got killed by space pirates. I know it._

 _Max Apogee_

"Talwyn!" Ratchet shouted.

"Coming!" Talwyn shouted back.

Ratchet wasn't far from the other edge of the elongated detention wing. Talwyn just got back to the unit as Ratchet got a glimpse of something suspicious.

"What is it Ratchet?"

"Hold on a sec."

Ratchet went into the last cell on the right. The far wall was dug out.

"Stay here Clank." Ratchet commanded.

He walked into the generously thick tunnel. It was at first, at least. Almost half the radius disappeared in just ten feet. Then, the rough passageway jerked up. Straight up. Luckily for Ratchet, he was skilled at climbing walls in this setup. Ratchet simply found bumps in the clay wall and climbed on those. The cave spiked straight ahead at a slight upward slope. Ratchet crawled for a couple of seconds.

 _Clang!_

 _Ouch!_

Ratchet hit himself on some sort of lid, seeing a brief squint of light. After checking it didn't latch, he opened it, properly this time, stepping out into the golden rays of life. That lid was just a cover. He effortlessly tossed it aside.

"The prisoners escaped." Ratchet talked to himself, Talwyn hearing the comment.

"That's what you wanted to say?"

"No. It's..." Ratchet started, before spotting a sheet of pocket notebook paper. This one was setting in the dark green grass, just behind where the Lombax got out.

 _Hey Tachyon, you need better prisons!_

 _Looks like a Lomabax has got the Dimensionator. I really hope it's not Alister. Bringing the Lombaxes back now would be **exactly** what Tachyon would want. Does Alister still work for him? Other than the dimensionator news, I have received nothing for almost a month. They must be intentionally be hiding information._

 _I will be hanging low for a while. Getting out now._

 _Max Apogee_

"You're father was not killed by space pirates." Ratchet suddenly, but predictably, let out.

The Markazian's eyes widened.

"Then what happened to him?" Her voice raised, demanding this information.

"At least not at first." Ratchet continued. "He had be detained in this prison, but escaped with a bunch of others."

"Is he still alive?!" Talwyn demanded again.

"Hard to say. We only have information up to the… escape." Ratchet looked up to see a fairly linear path of dead lifeforms. Their clothing covered up their remains. "How would you describe your father again?"

"Taller than me, very muscular, and with a stocky beard."

There seemed to be four or five that perished. Instantly, Ratchet could tell they were too small to be Max. Good thing. The last thing he wanted to do is find a dead explorer just as Talwyn was on.

"Alert! Alert! Lombax detected near the east side. Destroy at once."

"Get out of there Ratchet!" Talwyn yelled, always with concern.

"Don't worry. There's no one here to arm anything."

Clank followed Ratchet distantly out of the prison. He almost without exception got flustered when his partner left him alone like this.

"Ratchet, you forgot about someone." Clank said in a cross tone.

"Oh sorry. I got distracted. I was going to get you soon."

"Oh dear. Who are those?" Clank jumped, surprised by the dead lifeforms.

"Those people likely got killed as they escaped."

The small robot drooped his eyes.

"Hey Ratchet, I have to go. Bring those notes to me, will you? Maybe there is hope for my father..."

"Alright Clank, were out of here too."

Before they left, they set the id card on the drawbridge, making it easy for the investigators to encounter.

* * *

End of chapter 5. I assume if you made it this far, you like my story.

Now that you seen multiple chapters of my writing, is there anything that can be improved? It is my first fanfic, so I'm not expecting perfection.

I think I can finally say, follow if you like, favorite if you really like.

I've written chapter 6 already. It should only be a couple days for that.


	6. A Powerless Establishment (Part 2)

300 views…

Yeah, I'm a bit late. Apologies. I'll keep these authors notes short for now on.

* * *

 **Chapter 6- A Powerless Establishment (Part 2)**

Ratchet and Clank were at their home on planet Amaii Toro. It was more of a vacation home, as they were always on the run, either fixing easily preventable errors or working with a variety of high level superstars. Talwyn and them chose this place because it was an escape from all the often stressful entertainment. Less than 200,000 lived on this celestial entity, and most were concentrated in a few large towns. Not them. They were way out in the wilderness. Trees and a few stones immediately began once one would walk out of Ratchet's made up property line. Talwyn lived around a mile east. Scenery of almost any kind could be surveyed within a two hour walk. There was no other population for an eight hour stride.

The climate of Amaii Toro was extremely stable. No matter where you go, the temperature was almost constant, even at night. Sudden temperature spikes or plunges were non-existent. At Ratchet's northern latitude, days were eighteen hours long, and temperatures were consistently around thirty (Celsius).

Ratchet's home was not the most advanced one in the universe. He didn't include all of the bells and whistles most modern day shelters had. Non existent was the sliding entrance door, the automatic opening fridge, elevators (though he did have a large one that simply traveled to the basement), or holo-windows (which Ratchet never understood). It would be moronic to include many of these luxuries when you are alone with no power backup. You can't even get in your own home when power systems are down!

Speaking of power, his house mainly ran on solar. Since the sun was shining an average of two-thirds of the day, it was worth it.

Daybreak showed itself as Ratchet was hard at work, searching for evidence into what epic goal Nefarious was going after. The moderately stressed fur ball was upset he wasn't finding anything to go off of, reading the rather short stack of news stories in the decent sized living room. His partner just worried like a flunking student taking a crucial final. The robot called Sigmund several times, but improvements he had hoped for were scrapped. Clank could literally feel doom in front of his face, one and a half weeks after the first urgent call to Sigmund.

"Clank, you there?" Sigmund silently connected.

"Sigmund! Is everything all right?"

"I need your help for a sec." Sigmund stated.

"Warning. Unauthorized personnel in sector seven." The computer alerted.

"Stupid Zingers are intruding again. I would use the built in security, but it's all down. Even the robots are all down. I don't want to risk destabilizing the clock, so can you come instead? I've got enough worry the way it is."

"Warning. Unauthorized personnel in sector eight. Wake up everybody!"

"I _am_ awake, stupid computer."

"Pardon me, but what are Zingers?" Clank asked.

"Annoying flying insects that shock. They can take out weak electronics, and cause great pain. They have a strange magnetic signature that tricks the computer to think they are unidentified robots."

Ratchet was listening to the entire conversation. He took a quick glance at the half-visible meeting, and instantly picked up on Clank's antenna. It was flashing red much more rapidly and vigorously than normal.

"Clank, are you okay?" Ratchet cared, concerned.

"Yes. Why are you asking?"

"Your antenna is flashing more than usual."

Clank tried to look up toward his appendage, but couldn't quite manage, even when straining.

"Does a flashing red light mean trouble? It usually does." Ratchet semi-concluded.

"Did anyone say, trouble?"

Once again, it was another _perfect_ entry by Captain Qwark.

"Not again." Ratchet slumped.

"Captain Qwark, at your service. No matter what your trouble, be it physical, emotional, or completely stupid, I have taken every physics class needed to spin your frown completely around!"

"...physics? I think you mean psychology."

"Physics, psychology, whatever. Same difference."

Ratchet sighed. He has no hope.

"Maybe Sigmund should connect to me, in case there is an interruption." Ratchet suggested.

"Does your unit have encrypted anonymous calling?" Sigmund interrogated.

"It definitely does."

"Send the number to Clank. He'll send the number to me."

Sigmund has not grown much more fond of the Lombaxes since Alister's destruction, even after he saw Ratchet help. Ratchet transferred the information to his partner, and, in turn, the senior caretaker examined the connection with great scrutiny.

"Okay, I'll t..." Sigmund started.

The connection stopped.

"Looks like you'll need to reboot the system." Qwark offered, thinking he was being productive with his time.

"Qwark, I have never needed a reboot." Clank angered. This was the first time since their second adventure that Clank was seriously mad.

"Let's not start an argument here, you two. He should be call-" _BEEP! BEEP!_ "-ing soon."

"Clank?"

 _BEEP! BEEP!_

 _BEEP! BEEP!_

"Clank!" Ratchet yelled.

His trusty partner collapsed, sending the Lombax flying in an attempt at a catch. Of course, the distance was way too great, so Ratchet was clasping and holding the shut down robot, after any movement had stopped.

"Ratchet? What's going on?" Qwark sounded just as concerned as Ratchet.

"Clank just shut off!"

"Oh no! Clank's going to die! Clank's going to die! Ratchet, don't panic! Is he breathing?" Qwark said at two-hundred miles per hour, starting to hyperventilate.

"Of course not Qwark!" Ratchet screamed. This was exactly not the time for Qwark to be meddling with them.

"This is bad. Ratchet! Two hands on his chest. Pump every second! We're so doomed." Qwark whined.

"Qwark! He's a robot!"

"No Zoni energy detected. Dismounting all mnemonic functions. Disabling all time related functions. Disabling other Zoni capabilities." A quiet speaker inside of Clank sounded.

"System rebooting." The internal speaker continued.

The mechanic knew that Clank would be alright. Tension let itself ease as those reassuring words were sounded. Now, on the other hand, if Clank were to perish, Ratchet would have no idea what to do next.

"Clank!" Sigmund blasted, tapping in to his call device. "What did you do?"

"Clank shut off suddenly. Apparently, there is no energy left for some of his functions."

That line didn't help Sigmund's small panic. His virtual breathing intensified, hinting at a bit of fear.

"Can you do ANYTHING?"

"No need to panic. He's rebooting."

"Hey. My super ingenious advice actually worked!" Qwark exclaimed gleefully, his input somewhat sidelined.

Clank's eyes opened instantly. He snapped into gear faster than a half-awake victim just noticing the spider on their face.

"What happened?" Clank wondered as he revived, a bit confused, and still in the last stages of recovering from the blackout.

"You shut off and it internally disabled, all of your, Zoni functions." Ratchet informed, just realizing there is now an even bigger, imminent problem.

Clank's eyes widened, if that's even possible. He tried contacting Sigmund again from is own body, but it terminated without success.

"We'll be there shortly, Sigmund." Ratchet announced. "Clank, are you coming?"

The leader heard a message come from behind.

"Hello, Clank. It is very unfortunate that you are hearing this message. What has happened is you ran out of initial Zoni charge, and there are no Zoni to replenish it. Therefore, any Zoni related advantages have been terminated for your safety. You are a very lucky robot. Most robots who have Zoni advantages have no backup, and will fail permanently under the same circumstances."

They promptly departed, putting Aphelion in stealth mode.

* * *

It took about two hours to get to the center of the universe, with almost nothing to look at for the final thirty minutes. Nefarious's troops were not actively deployed yet, so, naturally, there would be no interruption to their travel. As they approached the mass of confusing machinery, they failed to see anything odd. Outside, there seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary. Everything was still moving that should be.

Inside, a completely different story. Nothing was moving that should. No mini-transport ships were traveling. No mnemonic stations were being managed. Not many water pipes were working. Even the time repair stations were in limited power mode. A third of the lights were shut off! They astonished at the transformation for the worse.

"Warning. Unauthorized personnel in power sector."

"This place is the most peaceful place in the universe. That's not a good thing." Ratchet stated.

Clank was just looking all around, taking in the power loss throughout. The clock was just not as vibrant as it used to be. Less sky blue.

"The Great Clock is about to fail." Clank sulked.

"Look, we'll try our best. You can go to Sigmund. I'll check out the power system." Ratchet tried to make Clank feel better.

Clank's heli-pack, once again, made him apt to easy transportation. Since there were no obstructions in the way, he could travel in a straight line off the edge. Ratchet didn't know where to go, so he started clockwise.

"Thank goodness you came!" Sigmund said with slight relief. "Where's Clank?"

"He's headed toward you now. Where's the entrance to the power section?"

"A couple of sectors up. I'll unlock all needed doors."

"Thanks."

The travel wasn't as smooth for Ratchet. There were multiple detours leading to a sporadic maze of hallways. At least Ratchet could skip a couple of these turns by jumping on platforms designed for Clank. The first very concerning object that Ratchet came across was a short, powerless helper robot. He would continue to see those failures throughout the rest of his intense stroll.

"Sigmund, you've got robots down everywhere. Did you disable those as well?"

"No I didn't! This is terrible! Calm down Sigmund! It's going to be alright! No it's not!" Sigmund talked to himself, almost smacking himself in the head at his embarrassment.

"Warning. Short detected in ion generator A."

"Sigmund, have hope. The clock is not exploding. There may be a smoother way out."

"And how do you know that? You didn't stay for two days in the clock!"

"Instinct."

The other concerning mass Ratchet came across was about fifty Teratropes on a large circular platform. They immediately charged toward Ratchet, making squeaking noises as they as they jumped out. He dodged them by walking along the perimeter.

"Warning. Short detected in ion generator B."

"I think we better hurry, though." Ratchet reasoned.

"How did I let this happen, again?" Sigmund said, scolding himself.

"You did not let this happen. Nefarious did. He killed every Zoni."

"Hey Ratchet, are you okay?" Clank concerned, arriving near the Orvus Chamber, and disrupting their flow of dialogue.

"Better than ever. Found the door to the power station."

"Hurry Ratchet! I'm freaking out!" Sigmund took control again.

"Calm, Sigmund."

"Danger. Short detected in ion generator C. Generator A overheating."

"I'm assuming the insects are intelligent." Clank observed.

"Last time, they were just breaking random stuff. Nothing too critical, but very annoying." Sigmund replied. "I don't know why they're going for the main power generators!"

The power room was quite large. Bunches of moderately-thick wires were stuck against the walls and the two story ceiling. Loads of digital power regulators lined each of the sides. Induction pipes were set between the four generators to draw heat away. No air flow was required. There were other generators elsewhere in the establishment, but these drove the main time stabilization machinery. If these stop, the whole clock stops as well.

"Danger. Generator B overheating."

These huge powerhouses used all two stories. With the intake line on the side he was on, the problem certainly lie across. The mechanic started the eighty-meter trek across the side hallway, dramatically taking in the sheer intensity of the heat. In no time at all, he was nearly panting. The overheating problem was definitely there. The short was to be expected ahead. The only thing missing, was the Zingers.

"They're overheating, but no insects." Ratchet updated.

"What's causing it then?!" Sigmund urgently pleaded.

Ratchet didn't answer right away. He charged toward the latter side of the room, trying to minimize grilling time. He made it to the side with problems and immediately saw the broken floor adjacent to the center of the nanotech-infused edge. Sight entering the discontinuity, he saw the wires (they were almost solid beams, because they were so thick). In between the two was a magnetic, solid metal beam. The insulation was clearly cut off. Who ever shorted the engines was not an insect!

"Someone more intelligent than an insect shorted these!" Ratchet deducted loudly, ripping the beam in the first engine, and immediately throwing it off to the side.

"Hot! Hot!" Ratchet yelled, unprepared to handle the 420 degree Kelvin beam. The long cylinder left a long black streak across his right paw.

"Attention. Power level below operable conditions. Standby for shut down procedures. You're all doomed." The always optimistic computer alarmed.

Ratchet ran to the second generator to see the same done to the first. He pulled that identical beam out so fast it barely touched his damaged hand.

"Senior caretaker to the Orvus Chamber. One junior caretaker to the power station. Initializing shut off."

For some strange reason, that dauntung announcement did not strike much worry in Ratchet. Such a different story for the two robots.

"Are you ready, Ratchet?" Clank asked, almost as worried, but not nearly as fearful as Sigmund.

"Still need one more generator."

He ran to the next failing rig, clenching his hand in pain. He stopped and knelled down to take the final bar off.

 _Zap!_

Space distorted around him. The static electricity made all his fur stand up momentarily. He could feel current running like cold water on a Markazian's back. He thought he got shocked by the generator. How stupid it was to avoid wearing any protection for the job! Swearing he saw something move on the other side of the machines, Ratchet stumbled in the direction directed.

The effect suddenly stopped after a miniscule shock wave was emitted. Ratchet's eyes expanded with surprise.

"Get back here Lawrence!" Ratchet charged, clearly making out the trouble maker at the door, preparing to leave.

A couple quick steps by the Lombax and…

 _CRASH!_

"Whoa!"

The whole glass floor gave way, sending the hero with it. Somehow, he managed to get a hold on a truss that criss-crossed where the floor once stood. The sound from the initial floor echoed and caused additional glass above to crash. Ratchet navigated to where the pesky beam was setting in font of the pole he was hanging on.

"Why did he have to do that?" Ratchet groaned just as the lights went out.

A four second blackout. But only in this room. At least Ratchet could remove the beam from the wires before the risk of lethal shock returned. He already sensed that his holo-call and other communication unit were busted. And his electro-pellet gun. And his O2 mask. Losing all three of those, Ratchet tried to think a way out of this high-risk situation. No way to communicate, no defense, and no air are three things an explorer or defender should not be stuck with.

"Shut down all particle accelerators."

Ratchet got on top of the beams and walked over to the regulators, which also had switches on them. Labels titled every one, much to his approval. Finally, someone who actually cares about organization! Shutting off the somewhat foreign machinery, he awaited his next command.

" _Sometimes I just want to rip his dreadful head off."_ Ratchet thought, processes directed toward the miserable assistant.

"Shut down sectors seven, eight, and nine. No dilly-dally."

Those were easy to find. A straight line of these regulators were on the top row. Having manual switches, Ratchet turned them all off with one long movement of his hand, index finger making contact with them.

"Hello, Ratchet. Been a long time. Again." Nefarious made contact with the power room, through a small announcement screen near the top.

"Is this your plan? Kill all the Zoni, shut down the Great Clock? You won't go very far doing that." Ratchet questioned.

"No? The Zoni gave you second and third chances at saving the stupid Great Clock. Without them, you get only one. I now have the advantage. Robots can be rebuilt. Lifeforms can't."

"Shut down all other non-time activities." The system commanded.

"The Great Clock in all of its disgrace. The biggest weakness in the universe. Sure, the universe may be stronger without it, but that means even more awesomely reckless domination!"

"Is it just me, or are your attempted tasks getting more and more unsuccessful? Considering you ended up destroying the most in our first encounter." Ratchet pondered, knowing that he destroyed much of Metropolis with the Biobliterator.

"Then let's break that losing streak! Ah, perfect timing. Lllawrence!"

"Could it wait til later, sir? Doing a bit of sight seeing around here." Lawrence also was connected to the room Ratchet was in.

"Just press the button."

"Apologies sir, but were not talking about _that_ button, are we?"

"Yes, that button."

Lawrence sighed. "If you insist."

A previous call played. It was only a couple of days old.

* * *

" _Why is my phone ringing?!" Nefarious shouted._

" _Sorry to interrupt you, but we have a potential criminal that wants in."_

" _This late at night?! Where is my respect?!"_

" _Join the club."_ _Lawrence countered._

" _U_ _gh_ _, who is it?"_ _Nefarious said_.

" _He goes by the initials V.I.L., or Very Important Lieutenant."_

" _Fine. Pass through."_

 _Nefarious wasn't impressed._

" _Greetings Nefarious. Honored to speak with you."_ It was the lieutenant from way too long ago.

Ratchet mouth began to open. _"How big was this operation going to be, exactly?"_ He thought.

" _So you want in? What are your credentials?"_

" _As a commander for Chairman Drek, I partially oversaw planetary preparation for his new planet. I also had fun destroying stuff. Lots of stuff. Hehehe."_

" _Give me the stats."_

" _My fleet killed about 25,000,000. I, personally, killed only several thousand, given my leadership status. I was responsible for the destruction of one planet, and prepared for the destruction of three more."_

" _Hmmmm...How can we trust you're right?"_

" _I've got 500 Blaarg ready to serve you."_

 _Nefarious thought for a moment, with the gear inside his dome oscillating at greater frequency than normal._

" _Alright, I'll send coordinates to a planet elsewhere. Meet me there, with the Blaarg. If the Blaarg are missing, you will be annihilated! Bye, bye."_

" _You really shouldn't join. It's much more dreary that you expect." Lawrence concluded, terminating the connection."_

* * *

"Lllllarwence!"

"What now, sir?"

"MORON! The other button!"

"Oh, should have known. Dreadfully sorry."

"Launching repetitive damage machine in 3..2..1.." A digitized voice in Nefarious's base informed.

"Warning. Unauthorized sonic device in sector one. Sigmund, are you listening?" The Great Clock alerted.

"Shut down sectors three, four, five, and six." It then listed.

"I know that's just a distraction Nefarious!"

"Oh, I know too. But I thought I'd have some fun while were at it!"

"Junior caretaker on power station, remain on standby. Directions being directed to Orvus Chamber.

* * *

Both Clank and Sigmund were in the special room. Clank was waiting in anxiety, while Sigmund was huddled by the control desk, shivering.

"Sigmund, the universe is in danger. Are you going to help?"

"Uh, sure. Give me a … moment." Sigmund stuttered.

"You are senior caretaker. Come."

The freaked-out robot floated at the slowest speed possible toward the former Zoni. Suddenly, a message from the simulation of Orvus appeared.

"Aaaah!" Sigmund yelled.

"Clank! What have you done? Just kidding. Oh, boy. This is not a good situation. But! There is a way out of this one! Hopefully, you have resolved all time anomalies. Otherwise, this universe is now a ticking time bomb. There is no time now to fix errors, so follow my instructions closely. First, rotate the handle ninety degrees counter-clockwise."

Clank immediately obeyed, shifting the lever slowly in the specified direction. A click could be heard when adequate rotation was achieved.

"Master switch set to power."

"Great. Now, this next part should be done with great care. You must move the lever, very slowly, to the direction I am facing. The faster you move the lever, the more time distortion there will be. Moving the lever too fast will tear the universe apart. No pressure at all."

"Sigmund, you get this." Clank commanded, noting that the height difference (and movement ability) will be a factor.

"What? No, no way I'm too weak for that." Sigmund shocked, not expecting the crucial mission.

"You can float. You can reach the lever at a better angle." Clank insisted.

Sigmund drooped his head as he conformed to his helper. He set his bendable fingers around the titanium shaft. Taking and holding, ironically, a deep breath, he started tilting the lever at about one degree every five seconds.

"Power shift initiated. Time stabilizers slowing."

"You're doing quite well. You can speed up a little if you feel comfortable." Orvus's simulation praised.

Out of an abundance of caution, he did not speed up.

"Is it almost over?" The mechanical stress asked.

"Almost half way there." Clank responded.

"Warning. Unauthorized sonic device in sector two." The computer kept interrupting.

"There's a Hypersonic Brainwave Scrambler in here?!"

"Yes. It is not a concern at this point. Keep on focus, Sigmund."

Clank retreated to the side of the room. There, he pressed the emergency distress button, located on the opposite side of the door.

"Confirm distress call? You will be destroyed if the cause is faulty." Warned the computer.

Clank pressed the lit-red button again.

"Great Clock in distress. Signal being sent."

Whoooooooop! Whooooooooop! Went the non-alarm inducing sirens. It was more of an 'attention' notice than a 'scream and run in circles' blare.

Sigmund's hand's were trembling as the entered more and more of a horizontal position. They were also slipping closer to the center, making the movement even more sensitive.

"Lever approaching 65 degree angle. Pass it, and there's no going back. Ever." The computer unnecessarily stressed.

"Tone it down, computer."

"What did you say?"

"Nothing." Sigmund defiantly shouted out.

"Uh, huh?"

"Call failed." An internal announcer called out as Clank attempted to call Ratchet's communication.

"Why did Ratchet's call fail?" Clank said, immediately growing concerned.

"Danger. Generator A failing. Cause: Prolonged heat. Unauthorized sonic device in sector one. Unauthorized personnel in sector two. Loss of O2 reactors in all sectors."

"Someone is waging war on the clock. I hope Ratchet's okay."

"Can anyone stop them?!" Sigmund pleaded.

"If it's Nefarious, not at this time."

 _Clink._

The lever made it the full eighty-five degrees, contacting the base surrounding it.

"Time stabilizers successfully deactivated. You are not useless, after all."

"Hey!" Sigmund scoffed.

"Directive changed to power station. Orvus chamber work complete."

* * *

Back at the power station, Ratchet was still balancing on thin but solid beams. Nefarious and Lawrence were still annoying him, and forever will. He was awaiting the next command by the automated sassy lady, wanting to eject from the stopped watch.

"Shut down sectors one and two. All time related activities are safely disabled."

Ratchet couldn't wait. With a flick of his wrist, both areas fell victim to darkness.

"Ratchet, if you here this, please come to the Orvus Chamber when you are done." Clank hoped, announcing on the intercom.

The mechanic could hear the drab in his voice.

"I hear ya, I'm coming." He said to himself.

"Lllawrence!"

"Still connected, sir."

"Make sure that doesn't happen."

"Right away, sir."

"Finalizing shut down protocol. Killing master power switch. Shutting down Orvus Chamber. Power station work complete."

"Ratchet. Head back now." Clank announced, eager for the tension to finally be over.

The Lombax exited the power station, walking now on solid glass. It was much dimmer that just before he entered. Those streaks of Zoni energy outside the clock produced a surprising amount of light. He figured out quickly he was in sector two, and he remembered the Orvus Chamber being in sector five.

"Really?" He verbally thought as he began his tedious journey to sector five. The first blockade that he came across was a sliding entrance that said "Quantum Annex One". The door opened automatically exposing the simple room.

The room had a few random machines along the sides, mostly toward the corners. There was a button near the middle, a strange door directly across, and two pad... things just ahead.

Ratchet tried simply to stand near the door, with expected failure. He also knew the button near the middle opened the door, and, as expected again, stepping off the button closed the door.

"A generic life form can not pass this room. Try a different route."

Ratchet reversed course, beginning to travel _all_ around the clock. Annoyance traveling through him, he stopped to check if there was a more efficient route to the chamber.

"Beginning final shut down." The computer said as the most of the lights flickered.

"Wait. Why didn't they head for the ship?" Ratchet stated to himself.

"Good question. I know what happens next." Nefarious taunted.

"What?"

"Any second now." He said with a long and calm tone.

A few moments had passed as Ratchet continued the marathon walk to the core.

"Ejecting Orvus Chamber. Good bye." The computer had the last laugh.

"What?!" Sigmund screamed, not expecting this to be part of operations.

Ratchet heard the implied cry for help (the announcement mode was still turned on), and the launch of the sacred chamber. It charged without stop down to the bottom of the clock. He only reacted when the capsule crashed through the remarkably weak wall.

"Clank! Sigmund!"

There was nothing. The Orvus Chamber was now space debris. Clank and Sigmund were like Nefarious and Lawrence on their special asteroid. His heart dropped and did not come back up.

"Apparently, this is standard procedure." Lawrence figured out, not being the one responsible for this part of the tragedy.

Ratchet felt a weak but steady gust flow toward the center of the clock.

"All of the air is escaping! Crap!"

Certain doom was mere minutes away.

No air.

No mask.

No cry for help.

"All active personnel, take note. After this message, operations will be terminated. Some separate machinery may run for several days, and most basic lighting should be on for this time, in case you are escaping. All organic lifeforms, there is one room with breathable air. It is located in the sector three orientation room. All security doors will be opened. A final farewell to all."

"Program terminated."

He needed to get to the air, and fast! Lombaxes could hold their breath slightly better than most organic creatures, but traveling to mid-sector three would not be an easily accomplishment.

"Is this it? Two epic heroes brought to their knees by a stupid clock? Pathetic!" Nefarious talked with disappointment. "Lawrence, follow him!"

"In pursuit now."

"You squishies will never win! Your desire to breathe will be your downfall!"

"Save your ego for later, Nefarious." Ratchet talked back, trying not to agree with him.

He passed through the first two time pad rooms with no trouble at all. Of course, there were no gaps for him to fall into. This time, all of the doors were opened.

"Do I sense a desperate Lombax? I didn't even do anything, and you're there, slowly dying. Tough luck space rat!"

Ratchet was already well beyond his lungs capability, holding his breath prematurely. Really, the only thing that is keeping him alive is the increasingly tin air that remained. He gradually had to respirate harder and harder for sufficient elements to keep him going.

Nefarious was connecting to every holo-screen in the airless path. No one could escape his talkative lunacy.

Just one more full sector. The wind pushed him all the way across the first mnemonic chamber. After the push, there was barely a breeze. Creaking could be heard all around as everything adjusted to compensate for the loss of pressure. Even Ratchet's ears popped a couple of times. Ratchet didn't even think of staying in that room! It wouldn't have been worth it, though, as it was a simple air tunnel, separating thin air from even thinner air.

"At last. A galaxy to conquer! No annoying suishy to get in the way! And not even his annoying backpack to stop me!"

"Nefarious. You know there will be many lifeforms that would take my spot. Talwyn would likely be first. Captain Quark will still be a nuisance."

"Did anyone say, Captain Quark?" Quark appeared, again, connecting to the same channel Nefarious was on, now bringing the total to four people communicating to each other.

"Hey look, it's toaster head!"

"QQQUUUUUUUAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRR"

"Oh, Lance. I thought it wouldn't never come to this."

"I know, Janice. Lost at sea. The last of us on the boat, shivering, hungry, worn out. But still as romantic as ever!"

"Oh, Lance. I thought you never ask!"

"Just whack him on the head already!" Ratchet dictated, slightly disgusted.

"Shhhh. You're missing the good part." Lawrence tried to silence.

"Yeah, Ratchet. Don't interrupt my favorite scene." Quark commanded.

"Really, Quark?" Ratchet was still astonished at what shifts his attention elsewhere.

"Janice, hold up a second."

"Why?"

"Is that what I think it is?"

"Engines! Lights! We're saved!"

Nefarious had a newly built-in reactor, which caused him to hit himself after being frozen for twenty seconds.

"RRRRRRRRRKKKKKKKKK! Always arriving at the most inopportune time!"

"Quark, I need to get out of here quickly. Is there any way you can send a ship here in five minutes or less?" Ratchet urgently questioned, starting to lose his breath.

"Of course! I have the perfect plan for situations like these! All we have to do is send a class three starship through two black holes, and it will have the speed necessary to travel anywhere in the galaxy in less than a minute! You can thank the Terachnoids for that one!"

"Have you calculated the chance the ship will make it without being destroyed? Just send someone here." Ratchet was getting weaker as he stated that line.

"The chances are calculated at zero." Quark responded with a straight face.

Nefarious looked with the strangest face the hero had ever seen.

"And what does that mean?" Ratchet went on, with the lack of air obscuring most of the sound.

"Better than negative!"

Stumbling, Ratchet was now barely into sector three. He frantically tried to breathe, but the air was comparable to the edges of space. The only way he heard anything from here onward was from the vibrations of metallic surfaces.

"Your last moments are ticking away! I had fun watching every moment! Who do you think should should be sent here next?" Nefarious suggested. "No response? Didn't really need one. I'll figure this out myself. Lllawrence!"

"Just a few paces behind him, sir."

"Finish him."

"Initiating Kitty Killer mode now." Lawrence said, slyly, pulling out an ax.

Lawrence swung the ax with both hands vertically and backward, preparing for the finishing blow. Ratchet stood up and swung his Omni-wrench at his belly. The scene was unique. Lawrence couldn't stop tilting backward while being pushed by the Lombax's wrench, while the furry rodent's standing up caused him to leave the ground. All in all, gravity turned off.

"Oh dear. What have I got myself into?" Lawrence gloomed as he slowly drifted away toward the bottom of the clock.

Ratchet used every bit of energy left to repel Lawrence. Now that gravity was down, Ratchet freely floated around, being not in a smaller building and all. Controlling where he went was impossible. He was too weak, only able to move his arms slowly.

"Bye bye, squishie. Good thing you won't be alive to see the rest of the _universe_ bow down before me!" Nefarious gave one final taunt, not knowing Ratchet would not hear a word.

All Ratchet had in the last few seconds was conscious thought surrounded by brain fog. Worry filled his head about the state of civilization without the famed Lombax. It was definitely worse than what Captain Qwark would say about the same thing. After all, he says he would take his place and give "swift justice to all" that crossed his path. Pfft. Ratchet wished he was kidding. The whole populace would be too demoralized to do anything for the first couple days.

In the last snippet of his relatively good vision, he saw a flash, probably due to some machinery exploding. He let out a single tear, quite large, in his right eye, before relaxing and falling into a strange sleep.

"Yes! Yeeeee-Haaaaaaa! He's dead! Lawrence! Did you hear that Lawrence?!"

"I did. No more fun, I'd say?"

"It's just the beginning! Prepare the BX-103! Time to show them who's really in control!"

"I would be most glad, but could you pick me up beforehand? I'm almost into space." Lawrence suggested, getting dangerously close to the shatter the Orvus Chamber made.

"Fine. Lieutenant, send in cruise ship."

"On it."

"Oh and Lieutenant, find the two nuisances in a container. I want to see them personally."

"I'll keep my eye out. Lieutenant out."

"Uh, sir? You might have a _meager_ amount of trouble coming your way."

"What now?"

"I saw a ship coming in through the hole. Couldn't quite make it out."

"Arrrrg. Always something in the way. Too late to change anything now. I'll monitor."

A small ship entered the ruins. It had a single light shining brightly on the walls of rooms where time puzzles stood. The ship searched for any sign of life. Anything working at all. There was not a clue. Not until a wrench was seen floating opposite where a room seemed to be. It was quite a distance, but there was small hope.

There was no need to enter the room. The bright headlight, by luck, targeted the motionless Lombax. This shocked and frightened the female driver that was inside. After the couple second paralyzation, she rushed up toward the floating fur ball. The strangest and most surreal detail that struck her was the illuminated lights at each end of the walkway to the building next to her. Instinct told her; this thing _just_ failed. And she would be right.

"What?! You again?" Nefarious yelled, surprised it would be _her_ that would initiate the search. He instantly connected to her unit.

She did not respond. Positioning herself next to the stationary life form almost as efficiently as a hummingbird, she held her breath as the glass-like cover _slid_ toward the front (as opposed to flipping toward the front or back) of the now nearly sideways vessel. The hero ahead was very unconscious.

"How big of bounty do you want?!" Nefarious threatened. "You're at fifty thousand bolts already!"

Still no reply. Being her first time doing space rescues, she stood and grabbed the left side of the edge-of-the-cockpit. With heart pounding and adrenaline kicking in, she hooked her foot in the steering mechanism. Then, the leap of faith. Her hands were shaking as she tilted forward, trying to get a good grasp on the Lombax.

"BOO!"

Nefarious was trying to scare the female, but lack of air stopped the attempt dead on it's tracks.

Thoughts raced through her head calling for her to get the ship closer. That would cost too much time. She was angled downward at a thirty degree angle, and she could barely get her armored fingers to touch his ear. She leaned a little more forward, and, she managed to get a grasp of his hair. Pulling gently, she ended up pulling his hair off! The ear twitched, causing her to jump a little, almost losing her grip on the steering wheel.

At least Ratchet started to move toward the ship. With one final grab, she pulled Ratchet in, getting back into normal position, closing the cover, and filling it up with air.

"I'm done with you!" Nefarious raged, looking squarely into her eyes. "I'm taking his body back! Lieutenant! … Lieutenant!" He repeated as he pressed one of his many red buttons.

"Yes, sir!"

"Send in the class five annihilator! Location sent now!"

Rosa immediately sped out and warped elsewhere.

* * *

Have a Qwarktastic day!


End file.
